VETERINARY TOPICS OF TO-DAY. 
747 
pain and anxiety of the countenance disappear to a certain ex¬ 
tent, and the patient appears to experience much relief and 
comfort. At the seat of each injection a swelling occurs, but 
this gradually subsides in the course of a few days. Loss of hair 
does not as a rule occur, unless the injection is made very su¬ 
perficial under the skin, and even then the loss is rarely perma¬ 
nent. It is best to insert the needle somewhat deeply into the 
tissues. The injections appear to me to have a slightly consti¬ 
pating effect on the bowels, though whether this was increased 
much more than is usual in cases of tetanus I am unable to say. 
However, in using hypodermic injections of carbolic acid in the 
treatment of tetanus we should supplement it with other appro¬ 
priate therapeutic measures, such as placing the animal in slings, 
dark and quiet corners, sloppy diet, rectal enemas, etc. 
The latest innovation in . human surgery is spinal anaesthe¬ 
sia with cocaine, for the painless performance of surgical opera¬ 
tions upon the inferior part of the body. This operation, which 
is attracting so much attention at the present time among sur¬ 
geons, was first discovered or used by Dr. J. L. Corning, of New 
York, in 1885. Dr. Corning first experimented upon dogs, and 
afterwards upon human subjects. The operation, which is not 
without danger, is performed as follows : The patient being 
placed in a slightly bent position, a hollow needle is inserted 
between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae, and passed down¬ 
ward untfl the neural canal is entered ; this is known by a few 
drops of spinal fluid being discharged through the needle ; the 
syringe containing from 10 to 15 minims of a two per cent, 
solution of cocaine is then attached and the solution slowly in¬ 
jected. Anaesthesia usually occurs in from ten to fifteen min¬ 
utes. In veterinary practice the operation could be successfully 
used on dogs and other small pet animals. 
In performing surgical operations, even of the most trivial 
nature, it should be our object to perform them with the least 
amount of pain to the suffering animal possible. This can be 
readily done in minor operations by the injection of- cocaine or 
eucaine hypodermically, and in the more major operations by 
