630 
WILLIAM HERBERT LOWE. 
There are many modifying influences among animals as to 
their individual ability to recover from an injury or surgical in¬ 
terference. Of animals in apparently good physique, and en¬ 
joying the same hygienic surroundings and treatment, one will 
recover from a serious injury or surgical operation speedily and 
without serious complication, while in the other an injury, ap¬ 
parently much less severe, may end fatally or in prolonged illness. 
The power of resisting’the effects of extraneous influences to 
some degree is a characteristic of all living matter. Its cessa¬ 
tion is death. The quality of the vital resisting power inherent 
in the constitution of an animal cannot be estimated by any 
known signs. It may be modified by other conditions, but in 
some degree it is always present as a powerful unknown factor 
influencing the result of any case. 
Mental impression, shock from injury, old age and pre-ex¬ 
isting organic disease are factors that influence the result of 
treatment. 
There are constitutional differences, such as plethora, anae¬ 
mia, obesity, that have to be taken into consideration by the 
practitioner. The temperament, the breed, oestrum, pregnancy, 
season of the year, faulty hygienic and sanitary conditions, pre¬ 
vious overfeeding, previous underfeeding, exhaustion from over¬ 
work, exhaustion from physical strain, deleterious effects of 
vicious habits; these are some of the more marked examples of 
influence which, by their effect upon bodily nutrition in gen¬ 
eral, aggravate and affect the result of all routine manipulations 
and operations. 
Good hygienic conditions, by their relations to the functions 
of nutrition, exert important influence upon all cases. The 
stimulating effects of sunlight upon nutrition should be re¬ 
garded in hygienic management. Next to the necessity of fresh 
air supply, that of sunlight should be provided in arrangement 
of hospital wards. There is an instinctive craving for the light 
innate in all living creatures, which becomes more marked 
whenever, from any reason, there is a depression of vital power. 
Insufficient air is synonymous with impure air, for the 
