DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
809 
for pathogenic organisms if an early change is not made. 
I have frequently suspected this as the cause of failures and 
the suspicion has been confirmed by better results from a new 
method. The first dressing of sterilized and antiseptic oakum 
and fabrics is applied after the operation for the purpose of 
arresting the haemorrhage. In twenty-four to thirty-six hours 
the patient is taken to a scrupulously clean place, the tempo¬ 
rary bandage removed and the whole foot and wound again 
patiently disinfected with a strong mercuric chloride solution. 
The wound is then dusted with iodoform (there is no haemor¬ 
rhage now to interfere) and covered with tarred oakum and 
with layer upon layer of tarred muslin bandages. If the wound 
is one that will secrete profusely, as, for example, when the 
navicular sheath is punctured, the first layer of oakum is not 
tarred, but is made safely pure by sterilization. In this con¬ 
dition it is capable of absorbing the secretion—a property 
which cannot be expected of tarred oakum. On the sixth or 
seventh day it is removed and readjusted as above described. 
If the patient is improving and the secretions do not appear 
upon the surface and in the absence of foul odor such a bandage 
may even remain on much longer, but the sixth day is the 
usual time for the appearance of these symptoms. After the 
second dressing the wound is usually safe from septic processes 
and may then be dressed with less precision, and if astringent 
remedies are then indicated they should be applied to the 
oakum. 
For quittor and other operations involving the wall, coronet, 
or lower pastern region, the same principle applies and the tech¬ 
nique need not vary. The clue to success in performing asep¬ 
tic foot operations is found in applying first a bandage to arrest 
the haemorrhage and then the permanent one, twenty-four to 
thirty-six hours later. 
Bandages of the foot are held in place by wrapping them 
round and round with coarse twine, tarred to make it more 
adhesive, and as horses are very destructive to foot dressings, 
the whole should be protected with a loose wrap of coarse ma¬ 
terial, or what is still better with a leather boot. Without this 
precaution bandages are often worn through on the second day, 
and on the hind feet they soon become soaked with the patient’s 
excretions. 
Fetlock and Pastern Dressings .—Accidental wounds and 
neurectomy wounds are the common lesions of this region, 
which is the easiest region of the horse to protect perfectly. A 
