354 
APPENDIX.—D. 
tal virus hanging about, it may increase the safety of the opera¬ 
tion if the wounds were bathed with an arsenical solution, made 
by pouring four ounces of water on two drachms of arsenic. 
“ Therefore, after these precautions have been attended to, 
proceed to the actual removal of the bitten part by whatever 
mode may appear most eligible to the operator. The means of 
destroying the bitten surfaces by incision and cautery, actual or 
potential, as it is termed, are as follow. A sportsman who 
might choose to act for himself, would find a ready one, when 
the wound was a simple puncture or punctures made into the 
hide of a horse or dog, to thrust in a blunt-pointed iron, heated 
to a red heat; after which the part might be further treated 
with any escharotic he may have at hand, as muriate of anti¬ 
mony, (butter of antimony,) sulphate of copper, (blue vitriol,) 
&c., &c. The regular practitioner would, in the case of simple 
punctures, adapt a portion of nitrate of silver, (lunar caustic,) 
to the shape and size of the wound ; this he would insinuate by 
degrees into it, making it embrace the sides fully, and extend it 
completely to the bottom, where it should be worked around 
sufficiently long to insure a complete destruction of the inocu¬ 
lated surface. A lacerated wound I would recommend to have 
its ragged edges removed, and its sinuosities enlarged, that the 
caustic may reach every part of the wounded surface, which it 
is evident must be most particularly attended to. As the slough 
hardens during the process, remove it by means of a probe, and 
then retouch all the parts every or every other day. When the 
punctures were deep in operating on a human subject , I always 
repeated full cauterization at the end of every second or third 
day for at least twice. By applying the caustic gradually at 
first, the pain it gives is by no means intense, and it even les¬ 
sens the further it is proceeded in. If much heat and pain fol 
low, envelope the whole part in a poultice. There is ever} 
reason to suppose that keeping up a continued discharge in the 
part, after the entire destruction of wounded surfaces, is unne¬ 
cessary ; I never practised it myself, and I have had no reason 
to regret the omission. 
“ Having thus reached the close of the practical detail I shall 
