158 SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 
meeting is held in the neighbourhood where its veterinary 
members practice. Independently, then, of all personal in¬ 
terests, veterinarians should be placed on equal footing with 
all other members. But, as we were informed at the Congress, 
this is not so, which would seem to imply an intention, 
perhaps, solely resulting from an effete tradition of always 
keeping veterinarians out of the rank of deciding judges, 
calling upon them only when those in possession of power of 
decision wish to be enlightened on certain points of which 
they are ignorant. The Congress considered that such a 
state of affairs cannot be continued with justice, and voted 
as follows on the complex questions under its notice:— 
“ 1st. That the inspection of slaughter-houses, public and 
private, and of knackers’ establishments, should be committed 
only to veterinary surgeons. 
ff 2nd. That to veterinarians also only should be entrusted 
inspection of fairs and markets. 
“ 3rd. That veterinarians should have a voice in decisions 
of election committees and commissions of assessment.” 
The same number of the Recueil contains a valuable state¬ 
ment of the results which M. Rosignol , of Melun, has 
obtained from the use of the elastic ligature, he gives three 
cases of umbilical hernia reduced by the action of this means, 
and he seems to prefer this to methods generally in use. 
M. Bouley has tried this method, but finds it needs inser¬ 
tion of a skewer through the hernial sac as a means of 
retention of the ligature. We give M. Rosignol’s summary 
in extenso . 
ff f For nearly five years I have been accustomed to make 
use of this means. I owe the idea of it to an article pub¬ 
lished in the France Medicate , by Dr. Gillet, of Grandmont, 
who utilised it in removal of the breast of an anaemic woman, 
from whom any extensive loss of blood must have involved 
serious consequences. At first I only made use of it to remove 
the various tumours which are so frequent in domesticated 
animals. Later, in consequence of the communication of 
M. Guerin , of Montereau , to the Recueil, in which he 
announced that he had satisfactorily used the elastic band 
in castration of the horse, I also used it with success for 
the castration of the horse, ass, bull, ram, boar, and dog; 
also caoutchouc, employed in the form of a band, has suc¬ 
ceeded with me as a haemostatic, and in the form of a tube 
as suture thread ; it is advantageous because it does not de¬ 
compose by putrefaction, and because of its elasticity, which 
enables it to adapt itself to all variations in size, whether it 
acts on congested parts capable of direct reduction in bulk, 
