LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 527 
in all these cases—(1) by the knife in the calves,'1.(2) from the tan yard 
in the case of the three-year old colt, (3) from the dissecting room. In 
these cases remove the cause, and I should myself try some antiseptic 
treatment when suspected. 
Professor Chauveau has also demonstrated another fact in connection 
with operations and state of the system. In the operation of “ bistour- 
nage,” which consists in twisting the spermatic cord, without making 
any external wound, in such a way that the circulation is permanently 
stopped; and of the thousands of operations of this sort which are per¬ 
formed annually on the Continent none are ever followed by infective con¬ 
sequences. But when he introduced a dose of septic matter with the 
blood stream, the textures around the organ became the seat of acute 
diffuse inflammation, which soon extended to adjoining parts, and in 
some cases terminated fatally, depending on the amount of septic matter 
introduced. 
The immediate cause of the septic inflammation of the testicle was 
evidently the injury to which it had been subjected, but no infective 
process would have developed itself had it not been that masses of septic 
matter were at the time of the injury circulating in the blood stream, 
some of which were conveyed to the injured parts, and then became 
centres of infective action. On the other hand, the constitutional effects 
which were produced by the injection of the septic liquid into the blood 
would have passed off without endangering the life of the animal if there 
had been no injured organ to afford the necessary conditions for the 
development of a septic focus. Predisposition as well as state of system 
will, no doubt, as before stated play a part, because wounds do heal with¬ 
out septicaemia when exposed to what in another case proves a source of 
infection. Parturient peritonitis and metritis illustrate this. Mares 
being most prone to absorb septic matter after parturition, whilst cows 
are the reverse. Different cases of parturition in the one, with abrasion 
of the mucous membrane, being much oftener followed by disastrous 
consequences than in the other. 
Two cases of purpura haemorrhagica that came under my notice 
contain instructive lessons as to how without care we may be the means 
of producing the very state of things we are most anxious to avoid. A 
black five-year old gelding affected with purpura haemorrhagica was 
brought from an impure and badly ventilated stable to our premises for 
treatment. The effusion into the areolar tissue around the respiratory 
passages of the head was so great that it became necessary to perform 
tracheotomy. About three days after this we noticed a nasty offensive 
techerous discharge from the wound; the animal, dying in eight days, a 
well-marked case of what was then called “ pyaemia” or the septicaemia of 
to-day. 
I have now to acknowledge how unintentionally I was the means of 
inflicting an injury upon a member of our Association and one of his 
clients. He asked me to see a case of purpura under treatment in his 
infirmary, and which I suggested would be relieved by the operation of 
tracheotomy, and in response to a request that I would send him a tube, 
as those he had were either in use or not to hand. We, unfortunately, 
sent him.the one that had been used in our case that died from septi- 
caemia. The result, although my assistant assured me he had thoroughly 
cleansed it, was most disastrous, his case dying some time afterwards, 
also a well-marked case of septicaemia. In the human surgeon’s practice 
they do not now consider it safe to perform tracheotomy in hospitals 
unless the patient is kept in an antiseptic steam tent, that is, a tent with 
steam mixed with carbolic acid. I can imagine some of you saying to 
