836 
DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
surgery it is an operation that could not be performed upon 
herbivora with any degree of assurance as to results, especially 
in the equine species ; but, in carnivora, when performed for ex¬ 
perimental purposes, the results are generally favorable. To 
recommend its use in renal diseases or displacement of the kid¬ 
ney in carnivora is admissible, but to claim that the results will 
be as favorable as when performed upon healthy animals for ex¬ 
perimental purposes would be misleading, as we have never had 
an opportunity to judge from our experience in that line, but 
our experiments upon healthy animals have been very encour- 
aging. In case of renal diseases, the condition should be diag¬ 
nosed as soon as possible to obtain good results ; if the patient 
is much depleted before, the operation would not be so success¬ 
ful, and in all probability the mortality would be much higher 
than when the animal is in good health ; yet, with all the^dis- 
couraging facts that may be offered, when the operation is indi¬ 
cated no surgeon should neglect to relieve the condition by 
surgical interference. In many instances, when the cause of 
the trouble is due to cavernous tumors or hydatid cysts, tempo¬ 
rary relief can be obtained from nephrectomy, but in such cases 
it is much better to remove the organ than to incise it. When 
the kidney contains multiple abscesses, it should not be incised 
but removed. . To incise it properly in many cases the organ 
would be cut into many pieces, which would render the organ 
almost useless, even if all of the diseased portion is entirely re¬ 
moved. 
When the kidney is affected with cavernous tumors, cysts or 
abscesses, the parenchyma of the organ is generally involved by 
the disease and usually greatly reduced in size, which impairs 
its functional activity and makes it almost useless; and it is 
considered in all such instances advisable to remove the entire 
organ. 
Neoformations .—New growths of the kidney generally re¬ 
quire a removal of the entire organ to effect a cure. The fol¬ 
lowing classification of neoplastic growths may be considered 
as indications for the operation in question : 
(A) Growths of congenital origin:— 
( a ) Sarcoma. 
(b) Hydronephrosis. 
(c) Cavernous tumors (angioma). 
(d) Renal cysts. 
(B) Growths of adult origin :— 
(a) Bxtra-renal growths. 
