Chapter XIV (1)

INJURIES--THEIR NATURE AND THEIR TREATMENT.

POLL EVIL.

=Poll evil= consists of a deep abscess, ending in an ulcerous sore which has numerous sinuses. The situation of the affection is the most forward portion of the neck, near the top of the head, which part is peculiarly liable to injury, especially in agricultural horses.

The gentlemen who superintend the laying down of stable floors always make the pavements of the stalls to slant from the manger to the gangway. They either know nothing about the habits of the horse, or they disdain to think about so trivial a matter as the convenience of an animal. Their stables are built for men; and it is sufficient if the places will hold whatsoever man chooses to put into such out-buildings.

The horse is most at ease when the position takes the strain off the flexor tendons. That end is accomplished when the hind legs are the higher portion of the body, or when the ground slants in precisely the opposite direction to which the flooring of all present stables incline. The animal, finding the slope which is most convenient for the builder's purposes adverse to its comfort, endeavors to compound the matter by hanging back upon the halter, thus getting the hind feet into the open drain which always divides the stalls from the gangway.

The rope should be stout which has to sustain the huge weight of the horse; in proportion to that weight, of course, must be the pressure upon the seat of poll evil. Pressure, as a natural consequence, stops circulation. Upon circulation being freely performed, health, secretion, and even life itself is dependent. The flow of blood to any part of the body cannot be long prevented without unpleasant sensations being engendered. Numbness and itching are the first results. The horse tries to master these by rubbing its head violently against the trevise or division of the stall. Friction, when applied to an irritable place, is never a soothing process; when instituted by the huge strength of a horse, its probable ill effects may be easily surmised. It is, therefore, no legitimate cause for wonder if some of the fleshy substances, compressed between the external wood and the internal bones of the neck, become bruised, and deep-seated abscess is thus provoked.

This, however, is not the sole cause; there are others equally potent and generally springing from the same source--namely, from human folly. How much of animal agony might be spared if man, in the pride of superiority, would deign to waste an occasional thought upon the poor creatures which are born and live in this country only by his permission and to labor in his service! Stable doors are commonly made as though none but human beings had to pass through them. The tallest of mankind, probably, might enter a stable without stooping; but does it therefore follow that a horse can pass under the beam without assuming a crouching position? Many horses learn to fear the doorway. They shy, rear, or prance, whenever led toward it. Man, however, refuses to be instructed by the action of his mute servant; those symptoms of fear, which are the bitter fruits of experience, are attributed to the patient and enduring quadruped as exhibitions of the rankest vice.

Low doors, such as usually belong to stables, are among the most frequent causes of poll evil. The horse, when passing through them, is either surprised by something it beholds outside the building, or checked by the voice of the groom. The sudden elevation of the head is, in the animal, expressive of every unexpected emotion. Up goes the crest and crash comes the poll against the beam of the doorway. A violent bruise is thereby provoked, and a deep-seated abscess is the sad result.

The horse likewise suffers from the representatives in brutality of him for whose benefit it wears out its existence. Carters display their ignorance by getting into violent passions with their teams. "Whooay" and "kum hup" are shouted out; the huge whip is slashed and snaffle jagged, till mute intelligence is fairly puzzled. Were mortals in the like position, subject to the same terrible chastisement, and, at the same time, forbid to inquire the wishes of their commander, they would be in no better condition. The panting, sweating, and starting of the poor, confused quadrupeds announce their terror. The driver, too enraged to understand himself, and too impatient to delay punishment upon the objects of his wrath, resorts to the butt-end of his heavy whip. Some wretched animal is struck upon the poll, for the head is always aimed at when stupidity quarrels with its own ignorance, and a dreadful disorder is established.

All the causes of poll evil may, however, be reduced to one--namely, to external injury. The first result of such a cause is pain whenever the head is moved. Motion enforces the contraction of the bruised muscles; and the agony growing more and more acute, the sufferer acquires a habit of protruding the nose in a very characteristic manner long before the slightest symptom of the malady can be perceived. When forced to bend the head toward the manger, it generally hangs back to the length of the halter; for although so doing occasions pain, the position renders the necessary angle of the head upon the neck as little acute as possible. The anguish attendant upon the earlier stages of the disease is exemplified by the length of time occupied in emptying the manger. At this stage nothing is apparent; at this period also great cruelty is too often exercised when the collar is forced over the head regardless of the struggles of the acutely-diseased animal.

Should the seat of poll evil at this stage of the disease be particularly examined, the most lengthened inspection, when prompted by expectation, may fail to detect even an indication of probable enlargement. Pressure, or enforced motion of the head, excites resistance. A few weeks in some cases, and the swelling becomes marked or prominent. In others, the enlargement is never well developed: instances of this last kind invariably are the most difficult to treat, for in them the seat of the disorder is always most deeply seated. The size of the tumor is therefore always to be hailed as a promise that the injury is tolerably near the surface, and, consequently, more under the influence of remedial measures.

After pressure has been made, the agony occasioned causes the animal to be difficult of approach. The common method of examination is, however, very wrong. No good is done by inflicting torture. Something, on the contrary, is concealed. Place the fingers lightly on the part, and allow them to remain there till the fear, excited by a touch upon a tender place, has subsided. Then, and not till then, gradually introduce pressure. The more superficial the injury, the more speedy will be the response. The longer the time and greater the force requisite to induce signs of uneasiness, the deeper, as a general rule, will be the center of the disease.

In either case there is little good accomplished by those applications which are recognized as mild measures. Fomentations and poultices commonly waste valuable time, and, at last, prove of no avail. Therefore, blister over the place. Obviously, the employment of more active treatment is at present forbidden. Do not, however, give the carter so much liquid blister, to be rubbed in by his heavy and coarse hand; but lightly paint over the seat of the supposed hurt with spirituous or acetous tincture of cantharides. Do this daily till copious irritation is produced, and, before that dies away, repeat the dressing. Keep up the soreness, but do no more. Never apply the tincture upon active vesication, otherwise a foul sore, ending in a lasting blemish, may be the result. Make the poll merely painful. An additional motive will thereby be instituted to keep the head perfectly quiet, for constant motion provokes the worst consequences of poll evil, causing the confined pus to burrow, or to form sinuses.

The foregoing treatment has been proposed because the tincture, when applied by means of a brush, penetrates the hair more quickly, acts quite as energetically, and is less likely to run down upon other parts than the oil of cantharides, which the heat of the body always renders more liquid. It is advised to be used, because it establishes an external inflammation. Inflammations in living bodies, like fires preying upon inanimate substances, have an attraction for each other. All injuries which lead to suppuration likewise have a tendency to move toward the surface; and these two laws, acting together, very probably may tend to the speedier development of poll evil, thereby shortening the sufferings of the animal. Should they not have that effect, the vesicatory is beneficial. About the head of the horse are numerous layers of thin tendon, which are termed fascia. Through this substance matter absorbs its way with difficulty. It is, therefore, almost imprisoned, and motion always disposes the pus to seek new outlets. Thus pipes or sinuses are formed; these constitute one of the worst symptoms attendant upon poll evil.

As soon as the swelling appears, watch it attentively. Wait till some particular spot points, or till it feels softer, if it be not more prominent than the surrounding substance. Then have the animal cast. Being down, take a keen knife and open the spot before indicated. That being accomplished, pause while the secretion flows forth. Afterward insert into the cut a small, flexible probe. When its progress is impeded, employ the knife with a director. Continue doing this till the seat or center of the disease has been gained.

Remember, however, you are not hacking at the family loaf; it is living and sensitive flesh you are wounding. Therefore, be very careful your knife is thoroughly sharpened, and is of sufficient size; mind, also, that all the cuts run smoothly into one another, so as to leave clean surfaces for the healing process to unite. Having reached the heart of the disorder, proceed to empty out all the concrete matter. That done, wash out the part with a syringe and the coldest spring water. Afterward examine the cavity. Excise any loose pieces of tendon or of ligament, and cut until a healthy aspect is everywhere presented. Then rub the sides of the deep-seated wound with lunar caustic. Let the horse rise, giving orders that the sore is to be thoroughly moistened thrice daily with the solution of the chloride of zinc, one grain to the ounce of water, and, placing a rag dipped in a solution of tar over the wound to keep off the flies, return the horse to the stable.

If the disease be left to run its course, the swelling generally increases, while numerous openings at last disfigure the enlargement. From such drain a glairy discharge. This adheres to the surrounding parts, and, joined to the miserable expression of the countenance, gives to the horse a peculiarly unpleasant appearance. The flesh wastes under the perpetual anguish, and the half-conscious aspect of the creature justifies a suspicion that the brain is affected.

In that case, proceed as before directed concerning casting the horse and the knife with which you operate. Have the blade rather too large than too small. Most veterinary instruments are mere adaptations of those employed by the human surgeon. The author never remembers to have seen anything approaching to the magnitude of a proper horses operating knife in the hands of his fellows. A small blade compels numerous small cuts. The part is rather snipped asunder than divided by one clean incision. The recovery is thereby materially delayed; and the lengthened operation greatly deteriorates from its chances of success, not to dwell upon the increased suffering occasioned to the quadruped.

The horse being down, do not attempt any display of your proficiency. Look well and long at the part intended to be operated upon. Decide in your own mind the course in which the knife is to move. That course should be influenced by the direction in which you may probably separate the greater number of sinuses. In the engraving inserted below there are four holes, each indicating the presence of a sinus. The supposed direction of the knife is laid down by dotted lines. The primary and lower incision includes three of the pipes. That made, another connects the other sinus with the longer incision; the after-labor necessitates the cleaning of the central sac, removing all the hanging pieces, also probing the sinuses, and making sure all are fairly opened. If any are found unopened, a director should be inserted, and the channel should be connected with the chief wound by means of a smaller knife.

Two cautions are necessary to be given with regard to the treatment of poll evil: Never permit the knife to be applied upon the root of the mane. Underneath the hair which decorates the neck of the horse lies an important ligament, by means of which the head is chiefly supported. All the evils which might be anticipated may not spring from the division of that development; but it is well to spare it, although the prostrate animal should have to be turned over, and the operation have to be continued on the other side. Also, when working the creature subsequent to its recovery, never use a collar. Wounds, although perfectly healed, are apt to remain morbidly sensitive; serious accidents, over which the reader would deeply grieve, may occur from the harness touching the part which once was diseased. A breast strap is, therefore, to be much preferred.

There are several popular methods of treating this disease. All, however, are cruel; one is barbarous; when properly conducted, none are efficient under the direction of a person possessing the smallest feeling. The injection of potent caustics in solution, or violent compression upon an exquisitely tender swelling even until the force employed amounts to that power which can bring the sides of a distant internal cavity together, drive out the corruption, and hold the part in that position while healing is established, have been largely advocated. Whoever could increase the suffering of a mute and patient life to that degree which the last method necessitates would merit a much severer punishment than the writer can afford space to detail. Of these modes of cure the author can profess no experience. He has, however, seen injections used; in no instance have they been successful. The time which they occupied was enormous, and the expense with which they were attended by no means small. The man who hopes to eradicate this disease should never have recourse to them.

Another process, formerly very popular, consisted in slicing the living flesh in a very coarse and vulgar manner; that, however, was merely preparatory. The chief dependence was placed in boiling liquor, which was inhumanly poured into the wounds. After such a method were all sinuous sores treated by an ignorant and uneducated quack, who especially delighted in eradicating such forms of disease. The writer has heard terrible descriptions given of the agony produced, and equally revolting has been the picture of the filth employed by this unqualified horse doctor. While, however, the course which has been mentioned is reprobated, our heaviest condemnation should alight upon those persons who could so violate the sacredness of their trusts as to surrender any creature to the torments of so horrible a remedy.

In poll evil, the only certainty reposes on the knife. When properly employed, the operation is brief; the temporary agony bears no proportion to the years of subsequent relief thereby secured. To be properly employed, however, it should be used as though the person invested with it was, for the time, divested of all feeling. He who accepts it must think only upon what he is about to perform, and must summon resolution to do it quickly. In surgery, hesitation is positive cruelty; the knife, to be curative, should be gracefully moved through the living flesh. All notching and hacking are tortures, and worse than folly; the blade should sweep through the substance; and, to prevent the struggles of the quadruped from interfering with the intentions of the surgeon, all that will be necessary is for some person to sit upon the cheek of the prostrated animal.

FISTULOUS WITHERS.

This disease, in its chief characteristics, closely resembles poll evil. It, however, differs from that disorder in one fortunate particular; poll evil must come to maturity before its cure can be attempted with any hope of success. Injury to the =withers= is easiest eradicated when attacked upon its earliest appearance; both, however, in their worst periods, proceed from pus being confined, from it decomposing and its establishing numerous sinuses. When disease has reached this stage, the only certain cure is the free but skillful use of the knife.

=Fistulous withers=, in the first instance, is an injury to one of the superficial burst which nature has provided to facilitate the movement of the vertebral, points spinal under the skin. The hurt is occasioned by badly-made saddles, but more especially by the ladies' saddles. Some fair equestrians delight to feel their bodies lifted into the air, and enjoy the trivial shock of the descent; such movements, however, necessitate the weight should be leaned upon the crutch and stirrup. This kind of exercise is never indulged in by good female riders, as no saddle, however well constructed, can resist the constant strain to one side. Friction is produced; a bursa is irritated, and the animal will, under the best treatment, be rendered useless for a fortnight. Rolling in the stalls is also reported to have occasioned this affection; so likewise is the heavy hammer of the shoeing smith, intemperately employed to chastise the transient movement of an observant horse.

When first produced, the remedy is certain and easy. A swelling about the size of an egg appears near the withers, upon the off side of the body. Go up to the horse upon that side; have with you a keen-edged and sharply-pointed knife of pocket dimensions. Stand close to the animal; then impale the tumor, and, having the back of the blade toward the quadruped, cut quickly upward and outward. Mind, and stand very close to the center of the body, as the pain of this trivial operation is apt to make the creature lash out and prance. At the spot indicated a person is perfectly safe; neither hoof nor leg will touch that particular place, or even come near it. Rest one hand on the back, and by your voice reassure the startled creature.

THE SLIGHT ENLARGEMENT WHICH, BADLY TREATED OR UNATTENDED TO, MAY
END IN FISTULOUS WITHERS.
]

The swelling being divided, exchange the knife for a lunar caustic case; smear over the interior well with the cautery, and all the business is over. Never, however, attempt to pass by the heels of a steed which has been pained. The animal may suspect your motives, and the hind feet of the horse are the most powerful weapons of offense and of defense. Have the creature backed from the stall ere you attempt to quit it. Subsequently keep the wound moist with the lotion composed of chloride of zinc--one grain to the ounce of water; also have the part covered with a rag, moistened with solution of tar. In nine or ten days the incision will have healed, and after the lapse of a fortnight the animal may return to its ordinary employment.

Should this remedy be neglected, pus is soon formed within the enlargement, and the formation is accompanied by swelling, heat, and pain. The horse is useless, and continues thus till the affection is eradicated. The animal cannot wear a collar; it cannot endure a saddle; at length numerous holes are formed upon the enlargement. These are the mouths of so many sinuses, and from each exudes a foul discharge. The poor quadruped evidently suffers greatly; it will almost stand still and starve rather than brave agony by violent motion.

The only remedy is by operation; make an incision so as to embrace the greatest number of holes. Then cut from the other openings into the main channel; this done, have the sides of the wound held back, while the center of corruption is cleaned out. Such is a very filthy and unpleasant office; if the bones are affected, all the diseased parts must be removed. When slight, the tainted portions may be scraped away; when of long standing, the spines of the vertebræ have been sundered with the saw and thus taken from the body. At any risk, none but healthy bone must be suffered to remain; all discolored or white portions of the bony structure must be extirpated, and none but that which, is of a healthy pink color suffered to continue. If a particle of unhealthy, osseous growth is left behind, the wound may close, but it will break out again, and the disease become as bad as ever.

The cleansing being accomplished, apply the cloth over the wound, and keep wet with the lotion formerly directed to be used.

Sometimes the sinuses will take a dangerous direction, and, favored by the action of the shoulder, will burrow from the withers to the chest or elbow. Then the knife cannot be employed. Should a pipe incline to this course, but be of comparatively short extent, insert a little bichloride of mercury down the channel. This is best done by powdering some of the salt. Dip the elastic probe, which has recently been down the sinus, into the powder. Reinsert it, and continue to repeat this action till all the bichloride is expended.

If the sinus should have run its entire course, but not have found an exit below, then employ a long guarded seton needle, such as can be purchased at all veterinary instrument makers. Insert this in its guarded state, and, having pushed it as far as it will go, give, upon the end of the handle, a moderately sharp blow; this will force out the cutting edge and drive the point through the flesh. Pass a long tape, with a knot at the further end of it, through the opening near the point, and withdraw the instrument, leaving the tape in after another knot has been tied at the other extremity.

Thus a seton is established, and a depending orifice is instituted. The tape will act as a drain to the morbid secretion, while the irritation produced by it will also remove the callous lining of the pipe. A healthy action will thereby be established; and so soon as the inferior wound discharges a full stream of thick, creamy pus, the seton may be cut out, with a conviction that its office is fulfilled.

The screw being loosened, the button is struck, and the sharp needle shoots forward, cutting its way through any interposing obstacle.]

However, never turn animals afflicted with fistulous withers or with poll evil out to grass. In the last disease, the motion of the head, the outstretching of the neck, and movement of the jaws occasion agony; and in the first instance, the necessity for perpetual action entails so much misery as soon renders the life worthless. The horse which is not worth the best of food in the best of stables, should not be doomed to a life of starvation and of torture. It is the shame of society that rich men are tempted by a few pounds to dispose of the creature which has been maimed in their service. Wounds endured when obeying the wishes of the master should endear the slave unto his lord. In the case of the willing steed, the law is reversed. The owner blemishes; and instead of nursing the wounded life, he disposes of it. The injured animal is sold to the first purchaser for so much as the damaged article will fetch.

FISTULOUS PAROTID DUCT.

This is a most serious evil, rather than a quickly-killing disease. The animal which is thus afflicted may endure for years; but each meal consumed and each day survived rates as a period of misery. When it is considered how much the happiness of the lower order of beings depends on merely feeding and living, it will be at once apparent how much the horse has lost when all enjoyment has departed from eating; when mere existence is embittered by being a prolongation of the suffering. The digestion becomes deranged, because the saliva, or a valuable secretion imperative to the proper performance of the function, is absent; while every movement is a pain occasioned by the agony of a diseased stomach and the anguish attendant upon a fistulous sore. The wretched creature, in this condition, speedily becomes an object of disgust to the most humane master; and, according to the convenient morality of modern times, is therefore sold to the highest bidder. Purchased only for the work which remains in the carcass, a fearful doom lies before the sick and debilitated quadruped. It rapidly sinks lower and lower, at each stage of its descent the food growing more scanty as the labor becomes more exhausting.

The =parotid duct= is the tube by which the saliva secreted by the gland is, during the act of mastication, conveyed into the mouth and mingled with the food. The parotid gland lies at the spot where the neck joins the jaw; within the interior of that body numerous fine hollow vessels connect and unite. These at each junction become larger and fewer in number, till at length they all terminate in one channel, which is the duct immediately about to be considered. It leaves the gland and travels for some space upon the inner side of the jaw; after which it curls under the inferior border of the bone and runs in front of the large masseter muscle of the horse's cheek.

Its injury is frequently occasioned by hay-seeds or particles of food, during the process of comminution, entering the open mouth of the duct; these, subsequently becoming swollen, prevent the free egress of the saliva. The secretion, nevertheless, goes forward and accumulates within the tube, which it greatly distends. A confined secretion produces the most exquisite agony. The motion of the jaw stimulates the gland to pour forth its fluid; thus every mouthful which the animal is forced to eat not only is the cause of suffering, but likewise occasions additional pressure to a channel already enlarged to bursting, and which at length bursts.

Another provocative is calculus, or stone, which is sometimes taken from the cheeks of horses, they being of enormous comparative magnitude; the natural tube would not admit a pea. Concretions have been removed from this narrow passage as large as a pullet's egg. Such an obstacle not only impedes the flow of saliva, but produces additional anguish by the distention it occasions, and by the hinderance so hard a substance offers to every motion of the animal jaw during the necessary period of mastication.

Every puncture made into the substance of the duct, and every rupture of the canal, speedily becomes fistulous sores. The saliva constantly pours through the opening thus instituted; the healing process is thereby prevented, and the edges of the wound rapidly become callous. It is, however, painful to be obliged to state that the stable fork, in the hand of an intemperate groom, is the instrument by which these punctures are too frequently occasioned.

Gentlemen when engaging people to attend upon their animals should always be very particular concerning temper. An irritable person, however smart he may appear, is obviously disqualified for such an occupation. A man of an evil temper should never be engaged. Still, the great majority of present grooms are rather conspicuous for an exuberance of conceit, than remarkable for any openness of countenance. Smartness may gratify the pride of the master; but it is difficult to comprehend in what manner it possibly can benefit his horse.

There is an old proverb which, being "the condensed wisdom of ages," teaches that "the master's eye fattens the steed." Most of modern masters dislike nothing so much as trouble. The stable is given over to the servant. No Eastern despot is so absolute as the groom in his dominions: he kicks and abuses its inhabitants at his pleasure. If the free exercise of his will occasions injury, a lie is easily invented and readily believed by the lazy superior. All that comes into or passes out of the building pays toll to the invested ruler. Five per cent. is levied upon the hay and corn merchant; the dung is sold as a legitimate perquisite; the bills of the harness and the coach makers are taxed one shilling in the pound by the most ignorant groom, and often much higher by the properly initiated. Thus the idle man pays dearly for his ease. There is no luxury so expensive as a want of wholesome energy.

The process of mastication causes the saliva to be secreted. At each motion of the jaw it is squirted forth with violence; every drop of the fluid passes through the false opening--no portion finds its way into the mouth. The running of the stream down the cheek wears away the hair, while the absence of a valuable constituent toward perfect digestion occasions the diet not to nourish the body. The animal loses flesh, and quickly assumes a miserable appearance, which makes the proprietor long to rid his sight of so pitiable an object.

The cure for this disease was aptly illustrated by Mr. Gowing, the excellent veterinary surgeon of Camden Town. That gentleman made an adhesive fluid, by either saturating the strongest spirit of wine with gum mastic, or dissolving India-rubber in sulphuric ether. Then, when the horse was not eating, he pared off the hardened edges of the wound till blood issued therefrom. He subsequently allowed the bleeding to stop, and placed over the orifice a piece of strained India-rubber. Over that he put a thin layer of cotton; fastened one end of the cotton to the hair of the cheek by means of the adhesive preparation. That being dry, he tightened the cotton and glued down the opposite extremity. Next he attached another layer of cotton, and subsequently another. Afterward he fastened more cotton, some of it crossways; and, having added as many layers as would make a good body, saturates the whole with the adhesive solution before alluded to.

The hair affords a good ground to which any other substance can be fastened; but it is rendered better by being thoroughly washed with soft soap and warm water. The ablution deprives the skin of the horse of its naturally unctuous secretion, and permits the adhesive application a better chance.

The horse should be allowed no food which necessitates mastication. The head should be fastened to the pillar-reins during the process of cure. Thin gruel only should be presented while treatment is progressing, and that should be continued until the covering falls off. Should the wound not be healed, allow a couple of days to elapse; but give no solid food. Permit the horse to rest on refuse tan--not straw, which might be eaten--during all this time. Afterward renew the attempt, and repeat it again if necessary--though the first trial generally succeeds.

Before concluding, it may be well to arm the reader against those practices generally adopted by horse doctors. These practices consist in the use of the red-hot budding iron, which is among them a very popular application to a =fistulous parotid duct=. The theory which induces this resort is, a belief that the heated iron induces an eschar, and the wound closes before the crust falls off. Red-hot iron is, however, far more disposed to destroy substance than to favor growth; and, probably, its curative properties could have gained faith among no other class. Possibly there exists no other body which would credit that, to burn a hole larger, was the best way to close it. Another artifice is to inject caustic lotions up the duct, and thereby occasion the gland to slough out. Against such cruelty the author is pleased to think little need be said. The operation, when successful, causes so much irritation as endangers the life; for the body of the gland is permeated by so many and such important vessels as render the termination always very dubious.

PHLEBITIS, OR INFLAMMATION OF THE VEIN.

Formerly it was the custom to bleed horses for everything and for nothing. It was not even suspected that a creature which exists only to labor unto the limit of possibility is far more likely to be the victim of debility than of repletion. It never occurred to any master that his wretched animal wanted blood putting into it rather than abstracting the smallest quantity of blood from it. However, formerly bleeding was a favorite resort with the apothecary, and the old veterinary surgeon seems to have followed the bad example. Aged people have informed the writer that they remember the time when, on a Sunday morning, a long shed was filled with agricultural horses standing in a row. These victims were all waiting to be bled. The veterinary surgeon's assistant used to take the fleam, and to open a vein in the first animal's neck. Then he would proceed to the second; and thus, in turn, he would open the jugulars of the entire number. No account was taken of the quantity of blood lost; that flowed forth till the last had been operated upon, when all the creatures stood simultaneously draining forth their lives.

The veterinary surgeon's assistant subsequently returned, and pinned up the orifice of the first horse; then he went and performed that office for the succeeding animal. Thus he, a second time, progressed down the row, pinning up as he proceeded; and the poor horses often tottered before he came. All this was done for a human fancy: man thought the loss of blood, at spring and autumn, beneficial to all kinds of life. The writer has heard of old ladies who were very skillful in bleeding cats. Most cats, however, resist such an application of medical talent; not so the horse: this animal submits itself patiently to the master's will. The creature seems to recognize that it has no right to exist except by the permission of its owner. There is no living being which acknowledges so abject a dependence.

In return it is made a sport of the idlest whims. Hence horses, after bleeding, were all thought to be much benefited. They were expected to perform greater labor and to continue in sounder health. In vain did the disease visit the stable more frequently; to no purpose was diminished capability displayed. The ungrateful bodies of the "plaguy beasts" were blamed, which would go wrong even after mortal science had expended its wealth upon them. Man never doubted his own wisdom; he never questioned his own conduct; and it is astonishing the quantity of prejudice which is from year to year perpetuated for the want of a small amount of so cheap an article as mental inquiry.

The worst of the evil still remains to be told. The creatures, being bled, were esteemed so greatly benefited as to require no subsequent attention. =Phlebitis= was consequently, in other days, a rather common affection. If neglected, the disease may terminate in death. In cases aggravated by mistaken measures, the disorder mounts to the brain, and occasions awful agonies. Taken early and properly administered to, this disposition is easily arrested. It was formerly wrongly treated, and was traced to an erroneous origin. Phlebitis was, to the perfect satisfaction of learned judges seated on the bench, attributed to the surgeon's want of care. So serious an evil was imagined to be caused by culpable neglect during a trivial operation. It was thought to have been provoked by the use of a foul instrument, or by employing anything else to strike a fleam than a properly-made blood-stick.

Experiments, however, which were instituted at the Royal Veterinary College, have proved that no want of care, during the performance of bleeding, can provoke the disorder. Wretched horses, in that establishment, have been punctured with dirty, rusty, blunt, and jagged fleams; all manner of blood-sticks have been employed in every description of way. These have been struck violently and tapped in the gentlest fashion. Every possible sort of pinning up has been adopted; but the utmost endeavor of intentional perversion could not produce inflammation of the vein. There appears to be only one ascertained cause: that is, bleed; do not tie up the head, but turn it into a field, or present fodder to be eaten off the ground, and the animal will have phlebitis. The pendulous position of the head and the motion of the jaws alone seem capable of starting inflammation in the jugular vein. Therefore, should the reader ever permit a horse to be bled--which, save in extreme cases, is perfectly unnecessary--let him remember to place the animal subsequently in the stable, to tie the halter to the rack for twenty-four hours, and, during the same space, to abstain from allowing any food. These injunctions, however, do not refer to the bleedings sometimes adopted to counteract acute disease.

There is one circumstance which should always be well considered before any horse is bled: Certain animals have a constitutional predisposition toward this peculiar form of disease. The horse whose vein shall inflame no man can, by sign, mark, or investigation, pick from a herd. It is, however, an ascertained fact that particular animals, of no fixed breed, and apparently characterized by no recognized state of body, have a mighty tendency to exhibit this particular disorder. The horse may appear unexceptionable as regards health; but, nevertheless, strike it with a fleam or puncture it with a lancet, and phlebitis will undoubtedly be generated; none of the usual precautions can _always_ prevent the misfortune. Such predisposition evidently depends on a determinate condition of system which science has hitherto failed to recognize.

This fact, or eccentricity in the constitutions of isolated horses, ought to be generally known. Men have recovered heavy damages in courts of law, and blameless veterinary surgeons have been ruined, by circumstances over which the utmost stretch of human precaution could possibly exercise no control. However, a more extended knowledge concerning the real origin of this disorder may do some good, since it will guard juries from delivering wrongful verdicts, and may tend to check that love of venous depletion which is still too prevalent with ignorant horse owners.

There was formerly a great diversity of opinion concerning a supposed eccentricity in the facts observed during this disease. If a horse was bled in the neck, and subsequently exhibited phlebitis, the brain became affected. If an animal was depleted from the fore leg, and displayed the disease, the heart became involved. In one case, the disorder proceeded from the center of circulation; and in the other, it mounted directly toward the organ. A great many hypotheses were published to explain or to account for this imaginary peculiarity. Much nonsense was spoken, and more was written, to point out the real cause of an imaginary difference. Yet, calmly viewed, the seeming diversity appears to agree with the commonest law of nature. Phlebitis always closes the vessel at the seat of injury. The disease, therefore, in each case, is prevented from descending, and consequently ascends above the orifice--the only peculiarity being the relative situations of the structures involved.

This affection is most common after blood has been taken from the neck. That seeming preference for a particular part may, however, be nothing more than a circumstance dependent upon the greater number of animals which have their jugulars opened. Were the brachial or the saphena veins punctured as frequently as the vessel which carries the blood from the brain, the apparent difference might appear in the opposite direction. However, from whichever vessel the depletion is effected, always tie the quadruped's head up, and present no food. A stall is to be preferred to a loose box, as the confined space is more likely to prevent action. Motion is the source of all danger. This fact was aptly illustrated by an anecdote which used to be related by the late Mr. Liston, the eminent surgeon. In his lecture, that gentleman surprised his class by stating that the last person whom he bled perished of phlebitis. Bleeding is the most simple operation in human surgery. Most surgeons leave this office to the apothecary; consequently it was rather a condescension in one who deservedly ranked so high in his profession to stoop to such an act. What, therefore, could possibly cause disease to follow the operation, when performed by him who was accustomed to surgery upon its grandest scale?

The cause was soon explained. The person operated upon chanced to be a lunatic. This insane individual embraced the notion that the healing process was much favored by constant motion; consequently he kept on flexing and extending his arm with all the violence which is natural to the demented. In vain was every effort made to persuade him from so mad an action. He clung with extraordinary pertinacity to his unwholesome theory. On the following day, Mr. Liston was surprised to find his patient in bed, but still moving the arm in which disease had already declared itself. Measures were taken to keep the limb quiet, but it was found impossible to accomplish this in a satisfactory manner; and when Mr. Liston again called, the patient was no more!

A vein being about to inflame, the earliest intimation of the fact is given by the separation of the lips of the wound, while through the opening drains a small quantity of a thin discharge. Should this warning excite no attention, a round and hard swelling appears. That may be like a hazel-nut in size, or it may resemble half a chestnut in magnitude; and this is soon followed by a swollen state of the vein superior to the orifice.

Then supervenes the second stage of the disorder. Unhealthy abscesses are formed along the course of the vein. As these mature, they burst, and send forth an unsightly and filthy liquid resembling thin, contaminated pus. On examination, these tumors are found to be united. They penetrate to the interior of the vessel, and are joined together by numerous sinuses. They literally constitute so many holes in the neck.

If no attention be now paid to the aggravated symptoms, worse speedily ensues. In the direction formerly indicated the vessel feels hard under the skin. Supposing this sign to be neglected, unhealthy pus issues in quantity from the wounds and soils the neck. This secretion is soon converted into a dark, impure, and fetid discharge resembling decayed blood. The horse grows dull and stupid; the inflammation ultimately affects the brain, when the suffering and the life are extinguished in the violent agonies of phrenitis.

The cure is easy, but everything depends upon the energy of him who undertakes it. When the lips of the wound which have been brought together by means of the twisted suture--as the "pin with tow wrapped round it" is professionally termed--display a tendency to separate, and, instead of being dry, appear moist, let no prejudice incline toward the ancient practice of fomenting and poulticing the injury. Without the loss of a moment in hesitation, withdraw the pin; remove the substance which was twined round it, and apply a moderate-sized blister immediately over and around the puncture. Should the disease have ascended up the neck, still rub in a blister; only a proportionate amount of surface must then be acted upon. If the case be as bad as possible, and yet the animal is alive, still a blister is indicated.

A pin is first stuck through the lips of the wound; a portion of
tow, thread, or hair is then wrapped round the pin, and, to complete
all, the point of the pin is lastly clipped off.
]

With the progress of the disease a larger space should always be subjected to irritation, so as to cover every part the most active imagination could suppose to be involved. One blister, moreover, will not suffice; another, and another, and another must be employed, till every sign of disorder has vanished. They must, however, be applied in quicker succession as the symptoms are more urgent, while a greater interval may be allowed between each when the affection is less serious. In the worst stage of phlebitis, another blister must be put over the part upon which the irritation of the first has not entirely ceased to act. In the second stage, the surface must have been barely healed before another vesicatory is resorted to. During the primary symptom, a single application frequently is sufficient; or, at most, two blisters generally suffice.

When the vessel assumes the corded state, a blister can effect no more than to check the progress of the disorder; no agency, however, which science has placed at the disposal of man can restore the uses of the vein. The vessel is lost, and lost forever. If a foul and black discharge issue from the openings, insert a director and enlarge the wounds, joining the holes by slitting up the sinuses which unite them; but do not cut the entire extent of the hardened vessel, as in that case you may be deluged in blood. The employment of the knife and the free use of blisters constitute the chief means toward the cure of phlebitis. The sinuses must be laid open. The probe should then be most patiently employed, for every sinus _must_ be slit up. This may be done at once, when the hardness indicates the vessel to be closed above the part which the incision interferes with. To such an extent the knife may always be employed, while blisters after blisters are used, regardless of the severe wounds over which they are applied.

Much relief is afforded by the large and pendulous incision, through which the corruption freely finds an exit. Some horses, however, from the pain occasioned by the raw and inflamed condition of the neck, will not allow the blister to be rubbed in after the ordinary fashion, especially when the irritation caused by the former application has not thoroughly subsided. In cases of this sort, do not employ the twitch or resort to greater restraints. Exercise your reason. Regard the painful aspect of the wounds. Ask yourself how you should enjoy the hard hand of a groom violently scrubbed over such a part, were the soreness upon your own body. Act upon the response. Procure a long-haired brush, such as pastry-cooks use to egg over their more delicate manufactures. Go then into the next stall. Speak kindly to a sick inferior that is at your mercy. Have the creature led forth, and, with the brush just described, smear the part with oil of cantharides or liquid blister. The extract of the Spanish fly does not occasion immediate agony, and the application of oil will cool or soothe the anger of the wounds.

With the jugular vein inflamed, the horse, during the period of treatment, should consume no solid food. Hay tea, sloppy mashes, and well-made gruel should constitute its diet. However, the gruel must not be given in such quantities or made so thick as the same substance would be allowed to a healthy horse. Gruel may not be very sustaining to the human being, but it is nothing more than the oat divested of the shell or refuse part. To the equine species such food, whether given dry or boiled in water, is highly stimulating; and, as fever invariably accompanies inflammation, oats in any form evidently are contraindicated. Should the animal, however, become ravenous, a portion of potatoes, being first peeled, may be boiled to a mash. Some water and a sufficiency of pollard ought to be added, and the whole presented in such a state as requires no mastication, but in a condition that will allow the mixture to be drawn between the teeth. The same thing may be done with carrots and with turnips, only all mashed roots, except potatoes, should be passed through a colander, and moistened with some of the water in which they are boiled.

Any animal, during treatment, should be placed in a loose box. No creature should be turned into the field. It is cheaper to pasture than to stable a horse; but the constant motion of the legs, as the field is traversed, is injurious to the punctured vein of the limbs, while the pendulous state of the head and the perpetual movement of the jaws are most prejudicial when venesection has been performed upon the neck. The stable is, in every point of view, the cheapest and the best residence. The head of the animal must be tied to the rack throughout the day; while, at night, the halter may be lengthened, permitting the creature to lie down; but the floor should be littered with tan, as straw might be eaten.

Let the horse remain thus for six weeks subsequent to the completion of a cure. Then give gentle exercise to the extent which it can be borne--the quantity being small, and the pace very slow at first, but gradually augmented. This exercise should be maintained for three months. The animal may afterward return to slow work; but if the neck is the place affected, it must not wear a collar or be harnessed to the shafts for the next six months. At the end of that time the horse may return to its customary employment; but, if ridden or driven, it is always well to bear in mind the late affliction, and to grant more than the usual time for the performance of the journey. At the expiration of the year, the smaller veins, having become enlarged, have adapted themselves to the loss which the circulation has sustained, and the horse may resume full work.

For the first year, gruel, crushed and scalded oats, with two bundles of cut grass per day, should constitute the diet. The manger should be heightened, and the halter be so arranged as to prevent the head being much lowered. Do all in your power to render useless violent mastication; and, as the horse never chews when the operation is unnecessary, the animal will obviously second your endeavors.

At the expiration of twelve months the animal which has lost a vein may be sold, and, _in law_, has been accounted sound. Such a blemish, however, is far from a recommendation; in this case law and common sense may be at variance. The reader, therefore, is advised never to purchase a nag in such a condition without insisting upon a special warranty, in which it is provided that the animal is to be taken back should the loss of a vessel be productive of any evil effects within the space of one twelvemonth.

BROKEN KNEES.

These accidents affect the exterior of the central joint of the fore legs. They may be very trivial or very serious: they may simply ruffle the hair or scratch the cuticle covering the integument; the same cause may, however, remove the hair and lay bare the cutis. Moreover, the wound is often aggravated by the nature of the road on which the animal is traveling. A fall upon a very rough surface might even destroy a portion of the skin, and deprive more or less of the cellular tissue of vitality.

The hair ruffled and the cuticle scratched.

The hair removed and the true skin exposed.

The skin destroyed and the cellular tissue injured.]

Accompanying such accidents there is generally some amount of contusion. When it falls, the horse is in motion, and the impetus lends violence to the descent. Probably the animal is being ridden when it comes to the ground. The weight of the blow is not only then proportioned to the heavy body of the horse and the rate at which it is progressing, but its effect is augmented by the load upon its back. These considerations render =broken knees= the proper dread of every horse proprietor. An animal may stumble and come down which, prior to the mishap, would have been sold cheap for several hundreds. It may be raised from the ground with almost all its worth demolished. The nature of the hurt is not, however, always shown at first. The chief danger, in broken knees, lies in the accompanying contusion. The horse which rises without a hair ruffled, but which fell with violence, is always, with informed persons, a cause of considerable anxiety. Contusion is to be more dreaded in its consequences than is the largest wound when devoid of anything approaching to a bruise.

The reason why contusion is thus gravely regarded is because, when that occurs in severity, the vitality of all the coverings to the knee is destroyed, and, in very bad cases, even the bones are materially injured. All dead parts must be cast from a living body; and no man can predicate how deep may be the injury, or how important may be the structures which shall be opened, when the slough takes place.