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SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 309 
in fair condition, and free from other disease, as for instance, 
tubercle. “ Lymph” is the amber-coloured liquid exudate found 
in the interlobular tissues, between the pleural membrane and 
lung, and occasionally in semi-coagulated masses between and on 
the surface of the pleura. Too much care cannot be taken in 
selecting the lymph to be used, as its fitness is the most import¬ 
ant thing in connection with the operation. I have said select 
and use only the liquid amber-coloured exudate free from blood, 
serum, and other extraneous matter; do not on any account be 
tempted to use anything else. The want of due care in this re¬ 
spect was one of the chief causes of the failure of inoculation in 
Gramgee’s hands, as it has been in that of others, and would be 
again in like circumstances. 
Having obtained your lymph, you saturate with it as many 
pieces of white worsted, eight to nine inches long each, as there 
are animals to operate upon. The instruments required are a 
pair of strong clipping scissors, a pair of rowelling scissors, and 
the needle. The latter should be four and a half inches long, 
about a quarter of an inch broad, rounded on the edge, and care¬ 
fully tempered, so as not to break or bend, lancet-shaped at the 
point, just behind which it should be pierced with a long eye, and 
be slightly grooved for retention of the thread. It should be 
fitted with a small handle, to facilitate the passing of it through 
beneath the skin. 
The proper place to inoculate is the tip of the tail. Of course 
you can inoculate any part of the body ; but the tail-tip is to be 
preferred, because you get perfectly good results from operating 
there; and if, during the process that follows inoculation, 
it should become necessary to remove it, such may be done 
with no risk and little inconvenience to the animal. Further, 
extensive swelling of a specific character and gangrene are less 
likely to follow the operation when the tip is selected in prefer¬ 
ence to the root of the tail. 
In operating you require the assistance of two men and a lad; 
one man to hold the animal by the head, one to distract her atten¬ 
tion behind with one hand, while with the other he grasps the 
tail firmly to prevent it from being whisked out of the operator’s 
hand. The lad is required to hold a saucer, containing the 
threads, ready saturated in the lymph, to be used. 
The operator, standing behind the animal, seizes the end of 
the tail, and with the scissors removes the hair, beginning 
an inch or so from the extreme tip, and clipping up¬ 
wards for five or six inches, and leaving only a short 
tuft at the end. Then with the rowelling scissors he makes 
two transverse cuts through the skin on the posterior aspect 
of the tail, leaving a space of three inches at least between 
the cuts. The needle is then slightly dipped into the lower cut, 
passed upwards and outwards through the upper cut, and turned 
round sharply several times to enlarge the channel. Then 
threading the needle with a doubling of the worsted, he carefully 
