mucous membrane, and, sometimes, tracheotomy has to be performed
to relieve an acute oedematous or pseudo-membranous laryngitis.

Transfusions of blood and injections of salt water have been recom-
mended against the destruction of blood-corpuscles and other altera-
tions that may affect animals suffering with extensive burns. What-
ever the condition, extent or degree of the injury, bleeding is forbidden.

Some burns require special treatment. Some of them are due to
chemical substances, which must be neutralized, or the diffusion of
■which must be prevented. After the washing of these burns, the acids
are neutralized by the alkalines, and vice versa'. If the lesion has been
made by an acid, an alkaline solution of carbonate of soda, or of potash.



INSOLATION — SUNSTROKE — OVERHEAT, l6l

is employed ; if it has been made by an alkaline, an acid solution
(vinegar) is used. Burns from phosphorus are treated with the hydrate
of magnesia.

Cicatrices, which form where losses" of substance, resulting from
burns, have occurred, remain painful for a long time ; and the situation
of the inodular surfaces may bring on a deformation of the region.
Such lesions on the legs always produce lameness, and the subjects can
only be used for such services as do not require regularity of gait.

III.
INSOLATION— SUNSTROKE— OVERHEAT.

Stmstroke and Overheat ?iX^ considered by most authors as two distinct
affections. Sunstroke is principally a cerebral trouble, produced by
the continued action of the sun's rays striking directly upon the
cranium. According to the intensity of the cause, the symptoms are
those of apoplexy, or of acute meningo-encephalitis. On account of
their double cranian wall, whose tables are far apart, having between
them vast sinuses, where air circulates quite freely, animals are less
exposed than man. Bourges, who in High-Senegal, High-Niger, and
Tonkin, has been with hundreds of mules and Algerian horses, has not
seen a single case, although a number of soldiers were fatally struck.
"The only accidents from the solar rays he observed among horses was
circumscribed erythema. On the contrary, Jewsejenko says that he
saw during the Russo-Turkish campaign, in Bulgaria, numerous cases
of insolation among the Russian horses. All of a sudden the animal
would stagger, fall on the ground, and be taken with convulsions, the
temperature would rise to 43° C, a cold sweat would cover the body,
and death took place sometimes in half an hour. In a dog, left for
for several hours exposed in a hot sun, Benjamin observed rabid symp-
toms, which subsided rapidly by simple cooling applications upon the
cranium. Siedamgrotzky had occasion to make the autopsy of a dog
which, having been exposed to the full sun during a very hot day in
July, had died suddenly : he found an abundant exudation in the
meninges, with numerous small hemorrhagic centers in the brain and
the medulla oblongata.

Overheating, observed principally during the summer in horses working
hard at middaj', and in cattle and sheep which make long journeys,
seems to be brought on by the excessive heat of the whole body. The
temperature may reach and go above 43° C. The animals affected
show a great anxiety. The respiration is much accelerated and
dyspnoeic, the beatings of the heart violent and bouncing ; the pulse
weak, and the body is covered with perspiration. If the causes of



l62 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS.

these troubles continue their action, the sick fall and soon die in
convulsions.

Most of the subjects affected with over-heating have withstood to a
high degree the influence of the solar radiation, and, in the generality
of cases, one is in the presence of a complex morbid state in whicli,
according to the given troubles prevailing, three forms can be recog-
nized : I. Cerebrospinal, essentially characterized by signs of a great
hyperjemia of the nervous centers ; 2. Cardiac and syncopic, killing by
arrest of the heart ; 3. Pidnionary, characterized by anxiety and exces-
sive dyspncea, which kills by asphyxia.

Dogs fixed softly in wooden frames and exposed to the sun when
the heat was 25" to 28° in the shade, taken after three-quarters of an
hour with trepidation and chronic convulsions, become comatose and
die quickly. (Vallin, Vincent. ) ' By over-work, experimentally real-
ized in making animals walk on a mobile wheel placed in a room
heated 50° to 60 , death takes place after an hour or so. (Laveran,
Reynard) -.

The experiments made by Colin upon large animals have shov^n that
if, by exposure to the sun, the hyperaemia of the superior regions of the
body takes place with rapidity at a degree somewhat elevated, the central
temperature rises only slowly and in very limited proportion. On the
contrary, in the case of small animals, the central heat reaches quickly
the degree incompatible with life. The wool of the sheep does not
protect him from heat any more than from cold ; in animals of this
species which were experimented on in a yard surrounded by very
warm walls, the central temperature did not rise much above 41^ C. \\\
conditions where accidents from overheating take place, the hypere-
mia does not result except from the outside temperature : it is due also to
the superexcitation of animal caloricity, resulting from muscular action,
respiration, and other fundamental modifications. Overheating has
numerous degrees and various forms, according to its effects upon a
larger or smaller number of functions or of organs. It may extend to
cerebral congestion, cerebro-spinal congestion, or to other visceral con-
gestions to incipient asphyxia, anesthesia, syncope, and to other
troubles which invite rather than exclude each other. ^ (Colin.)

Prophylactic rules a,re suggested by the etiology. Animals must not
be submitted to long exposure under a burning sun, or to excessive
work in a high temperature. If they must work under a burning sun.
their heads ought to be protected with leaves of trees, a cap, or other
objects ad hoc. In Bulgaria, as soon as the heads of Russian horses

1 Vallin. Bullet. Acad de Med., 1894, p. 640.

2 Laveran & Reynard, Bull. .^cad. de Med. 1S94, p. 501.

3 Collin, Bull. Acad, de Med., p. 2S.



ACCIDENTS P'ROM LIGHTNING. 163

were protected with linen caps, there were no more deaths. (Jew-
sejenko.)

Curative treatment consists in immediate, and, for a time, contin-
uous care. The animal should be placed in the shade or a cool place,
if possible. Bleeding is especially advantageous for the pulmonary
form. Asphyxia will be prevented by subcutaneous injections of ether
(10 to 20 grammes for large animals ; i to 2 for small) ; they should be
renewed after an hour ; if necessarx-, artificial respiration should be
maintained. In the cerebro-spinal congestive form abundant affusions
of cold water on the head and neck are recommended, with flagella-
tion and revulsive friction on the legs (spirits of turpentine, mustard).
To lower the temperature, cold irrigations on the body, friction with
crushed ice or cold rectal injections are advisable. If an improvement
is manifested, and all danger seems at end, one should have recourse
to remedies which will prevent the return of the congestive accidents
and stimulate the elimination of organic wastes, which are the causes of
those accidents : injections of caffeine alone or combined with those of
ether (caffeine 4 grammes ; salicylate or benzoate of soda, 8 grammes ;
distilled water, Q. S. to dissolve and make 20 cubic centimeters ; give
one gramme of caffeine by injection to large animals, 5 or 10 centi-
grammes to small) ; injection of pilocarpine (20 to 30 centigrammes in.
the case of large and 2 to 4 in the case of small animals).

IV.

ACCIDENTS FROM LIGHTNING.

Accidents from lightning occur to all species of domestic animals,
"but more commonly to large, especially those that live in pastures.
According to the intensity of the action of lightning, whether it acts di-
rectly or by reflex shock, its effects vary. Sometimes animals are killed
on the spot — some keep the position they had when struck ; others are
thrown on the ground and remain there senseless. There are some
which rise almost immediately, exhibiting afterwards only signs of
stupefaction, which pass off little by little (Roloft") ; we have seen a
dog thrown on the ground by a shock get up after a few minutes and
return to his normal state. It showed signs of weakness and of fright,
but they gradually disappeared. With others, the loss of the senses
may last several hours ; and often serious troubles remain (exaltation
of sensibility, a stumbling walk, paresis, paralysis, hemiplegy, para-
plegy). Blindness is frequent. (Jarmer, Fischer, Ziegenbein.) In
numerous cases, where animals have been fatally struck, a flow of blood
from the mouth and nostrils has been seen.

Some animals struck by lightning present no external lesion (Roloff,
Hering, Boellmann) ; but, ordinarily, the surface of the body shows



164 VETERINARY SURGICAL T?IERAPEUTICS.

Circumscribed or extensive burns, regular or irregular. The skin is
marked with lines or narrow bands, angular or in zigzag ; sometimes
the hair is destroyed upon wide surfaces. In piebald cows, Urbain
has seen the burns affecting only the region covered with white hair.
Deep burns of the dermis, of the subcutaneous connective tissue, and
of the muscles have been observed. In general the high regions of the
body are affected — the head, neck, and withers.*

When lightning strikes a building containing a certain number of ani-
mals, some standing, others lying down, it is quite often the former that
are seriously or fatally affected. In a stable of nine horses, four that
were lying down escaped and the others were struck ; two were killed on
the spot, two remained blind, the fifth was paralyzed (Ziegenbein.) In
a barn in which there were seven cows and a calf, the calf became lame
only; all the cows were killed. In 1883, in the stud of St. George's,
six thoroughbreds were struck with lightning. The stable included six
compartments arranged in two rows, and each contained two horses ;
the lightning killed the animals of the first and sixth compartments ;
spared those of the second, and killed one in the third and one in the
fifth. No trouble was observed on those surviving, except two
seemed to be somewhat stupefied for a day (Garcin). Sometimes the
victims are more numerous : in 1892, at Alhowa, near Munster, light-
ning killed 300 sheep returning to the sheepfold.

Electric discharges are liable to produce in animals serious and, at
times, fatal accidents. Woherling records two cases of this nature ; a
horse, harnessed to a cab, while trotting, fell down a few moments after
passing over a metallic plate covering the electric light wires ; it
exhibited numbness and muscular tremblings, which subsided in a few
hours. A mare passing over the same plate fell suddenly, killed.
There was no burn on the surface of the body ; at the post mortem
examination the heart was found flabby and the lungs and nervous
centers congested.

The principal accidents for which one may be called upon to interfere
are : paralysis (Roloff, Barenbach, Dehaye, Ziegenbein, Steffen) ; cramps
(Curdt) ; burns (Curdt, Roloff, Urbain, Hering, Meyerheine, Lucas) ;
phlegmasia of mucous membranes (Boellmam, Curdt) ; ocular lesions
(Boellmann, Lehnhardt).

When the animal is still lying on the ground, incompletely restored to
itself, one must try to revive its forces by dry or irritating frictions,

* Liautard writes on the effects of lightning on horses the result of a thunder
storm striking a breeding establishment, where one stallion remained unhurt and an-
other, Pancoast, was found " prostrate, lying in a heap on his off-side, with profuse
epistaxis from both nostrils ; " he exhibited symptoms of general paralysis • the
left side of the head was principally affected. He ultimately recovered. (American
Vet. Review, vol. 12, page 202.)



ACCIDENTS FROM LIGHTNING. 165

•cold aspersions, stimulating drenches (alcohol, coffee, carbonate of
ammonia) or subcutaneous injections (ether). Burns, cutaneous and
mucous phlegmasia, paralysis, and ocular accidents are treated accord-
ing to the rules laid down for the therapeutics of these affections.
Often the affected cutaneous regions affected assume a peculiar aspect.
Sometimes hair grows no more. (Urbain. ) Upon a cow treated by
Miiller, the burnt region, which extended from the left flank to the tail,
■became covered with a thick epidermic horny-like layer.



CHAPTER III.
COMPLICATIONS OF TRAUMATIC LESIONS.

I.
SYNCOPE— SHOCK— LOCAL STUPOR.

Traumatic syncope is a serious accident, appearing suddenly, and
characterized by arrest of the beatings of the heart and a condition of
apparent death.

In all species, one may observe viechanical syncope, by cerebral
anaemia, due to a very abundant hemorrhage and to the depletion of
the circulatory system.

Reflex syncope is very rare in animals. Goubaux has recorded one
case seen at the clinic of Bouley. It was in a very delicate and impres-
sionable dog suffering from a tumor of the abdominal walls. While this
was being excised without sensible loss of blood, or compression of the
respiratory organs, the animal was seized with a mortal syncope. (*)
We have observed a similar case in a slut from which we were removing
a tumor of the ventral mammal. We also witnessed another in a mare
during ovariotomy ; the puncture of the vaginal walls and the enlarge-
ment of the wound had been done without incident ; at the moment
when the hand entered the abdominal cavity, the animal made very
violent expulsive efforts ; scarcely had the removal of the first ovary
begun when she staggered and fell lifeless : the respiration had stopped,
the beatings of the heart were no longer perceptible, the reflexes were
gone. Artificial respiration and titillation of the tongue having been
made, after a few minutes, the movements of the ribs and of the heart
reappeared.

Mechanical syncope may be prevented by avoiding a large loss of
blood. The treatment for both forms is that of syncope in general :
place the head in a dependent position, excite the skin by flagellation to
stimulate the return of the cardial movements, practice artificial respira-
tion, make tractions upon the tongue, and inject ether subcutaneously.

The traumatic shock, lethargy, or stupor of the 7vounded is a condition
of collapse which differs from syncope in the fact that the beatings of

(*) Goubaux — Rec. de Med. Vet. 1885, p. 220.
166



HEMORRHAGE AND TRAUMATIC ANEMIA. 16/

the heart and the pulse persist. A reflex condition produced by a kind
of commotion upon the nervous centers, the shock is often but the first
step towards fatal coma.

The wounded, upon which it is observed, should be left in costal
decubitus with the head dependent. They should receive irritating
cutaneous friction, alcohol or ether in hypodermic injections, and
stimulating douches.

Local stupor or traumatic local commotion, a peculiar condition
observed with contused wounds, is characterized by anaesthesia, the
absence of hemorrhage and the cold sensation received by feeling the
edges of the wound. Sometimes it exists alone, at other times it is
accompanied with the general phenomena which constitute the traumatic
shock. Round the wound there exists a benumbed zone, ordinarily
extensive, which has a great tendency to mortification.

The treatment must have for its object the prevention of this, the
arousing of the circulation, and the restoration of vitality to the anatom-
ical elements. Stimulating and tepid antiseptic lotions are particularly
to be recommended. As long as the local stupor lasts, all surgical
interference must be stopped, except in case of positive emergency.

II.

HEMORRHAGE AND TRAUMATIC ANEMIA.

The abundant and continued hemorrhages that are observed with some
traumatic lesions in animals, are not always in proportion to the caliber
of the blood-vessels divided. Whether primitive or secondary, and
in the latter case, precocious or tardy, they may result from an alteration
of the vascular walls, a general morbid condition (leucoemia, hemophilia)
or from various visceral affections (diseases of the liver or of the heart).
Their effects depend upon numerous conditions : duration and quantity
of the hemorrhage, its local or general cause, caliber of the injured
vessels. With the exception of patients suffering from leucaemia or
adcnic, it is extremely rare for animals to have fatal traumatic hemorrhages,
unless the injured blood-vessels are of great dimensions.

The means to use in these cases vary accordingly. The flow of blood
from small blood-vessels ordinarily subsides by plugging, pressure, or
cauterization. For large blood-vessels, ligature or the torsion is used.
(See Hemostasis).

Traumatic aticernia is the consequence of the loss of a large
quantity of blood. Sudden and considerable hemorrhages give rise to
■acute anccmia \ less abundant but repeated flows bring on chronic
■a/uemia.

The complete obliteration of the bleeding vessels is, in all cases, the



l68 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS.

first matter for interference. When anaemia occurs suddenly the^
serious symptoms which appear indicate an imminent syncope, whicii
■must be prevented by placing the head of the animal in a dependent
position, and practising flagellation and artificial respiration. Hypo-
dermic injections of ether are also recommended. If one succeeds in
bringing the subject to, water should be freely given to satisfy the great
thirst which it will exhibit. Well-regulated hygienic measures, heavy
feeding and tonics will be sufficient, generally, for a complete recovery.
When once hemostasis is assured, tonics and abundant feeding must
be resorted to in cases of chronic anaemia.

III.
TRAUMATIC EMPHYSEMA.

Produced by the infiltration into the cellular tissue of air or of gas.
from the digestive tracts, traumatic emphysema is characterized by a
soft, circumscribed or diffuse tumefaction, crepitant and painless. It
is quite frequently observed as a complication of narrow penetrating-
wounds of the nasal cavities, sinuses, larynx, trachea, lungs or costal
walls ; and also has been seen after wounds of the larynx, which were
made through the mouth, in rough manipulations to push forward for-
eign bodies arrested in the oesophagus (Barbotte) : under the influence
of the respiratory movements, the air enters the subcutaneous or sub-
mucous cellular tissue, spreads little by little, and makes the charac-
teristic crepitating tumefaction. Wounds of the axilla or of the groin,
and some peri-articular solutions of continuity, are often accompanied
with it and sometimes with general emphysema. The patient men-
tioned by Bouret had a wound on the inner face of the elbow : he
became enormous, monstrous ; his limbs had the size of a child's body :.
his body was as if it had been inflated ; the neck and all the superior
and posterior parts of the head were in this condition. In these wounds,
of the axilla and of the groin the edges of the solution of continuity
separate by the motions due to abduction of the leg, the air enters by a
kind of aspiration ; and by a motion due to adduction, it is squeezed
into the connective tissue of the surrounding parts. Analogous pheno-
mena take place with peri-articular wounds.

The subcutaneous emphysema of sheep, quite frequent in animals,
traveling in flocks, is almost always the result of penetrating bites on
the neck ; the trachea opens, the air is pushed into the subcutaneous
connective tissue by the action of the lung, the emphysema appears
successively in the throat, the cheeks, forehead, and round the eyes ^
it extends to other regions where the looseness of the cellular tissue-
permits the progression of the air, and in a few hours is generalized



TRAUMATIC EMPHYSEMA. 1 69

(Godbille). In tympanitis, if one punctures the caecum in Iiorses or
the rumen in cattle, as also in accidental wounds of those cavities, gases,
which they contain, penetrate sometimes into the subcutaneous con-
nective tissue and produce a more or less extensive emphysema.

Subcutaneous emphysema may exist without a wound of the skin or
of the superior respiratory organs. In'cattle, it quite frequently coexists
with pulmonary emphysema, sometimes with echinococcosis or other
pulmonary lesions. Then, generally, it begins at the superior part on
the neck ; ordinarily, not very apparent at the outset, palpation is
necessary to detect it. Then it spreads towards the posterior regions,
following the dorso-lumbar line.

Sometimes subcutaneous emphysema shows itself upon animals
which are not affected with pulmonary lesions and in which the skin is
free from the perforation of oestri. This form is ordinarily observed
upon animals which have made a long journey on foot. Cattle dealers
say that over-walking, fatigue, and blows are the cause of it. The
gaseous infiltration starts almost always at the loins, extending after-
wards to the back and the withers. Lafosse admitted that under the
influence of a trouble in the cutaneous respiration, these gases (oxygen,
carbonic acid, nitrogen) were " thrown into the cellular tissue by the
capillaries." Bouley had to make a fissure in the rectum with a punc-
turing foreign body to produce it. A gaseous elaboration of microbian
origin has also been cited as cause.

The slight gravity of traumatic subcutaneous emphysema is recognized
by numerous observations. The action of the air upon the cellular
tissue is almost without danger, and that of gases issuing from intestinal
sources is not to be feared, unless they carry with them, in the con-
nective tissue surrounding the wound, a certain quantity of liquid mat-
ter noxious on account of the microbes it contains.

The treatment is the very simplest. Traumatic emphysema due to
atmospheric air should be treated by methodic pressures made upon the
tumefaction, from the periphery towards the wound, to expel the air
which has penetrated the tissues. If the cutaneous wound is small, it
should be obliterated with a plaster of collodion. Large wounds of the
axilla and of the groin should be partially closed with a suture and the
patient should be kept at rest. With large penetrating wounds of the
trachea, when the air reaches the connective tissue through the wound
of the mucous membrane it is necessary to enlarge the cutaneous solu-
tion of continuity, whose small size is, ordinarily, the cause of the
emphysema. In these first varieties of the affection, no puncture or
scarification of the crepitating zone is to be made. When emphysema
is produced by gases from intestinal cavities, the cutaneous wound must
be enlarged, methodic pressures must be made on the swelling, and if
the inflammation of the peritraumatic zone indicates the presence, in



I/O VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS.

the tissues, of irritant infectious liquids, scarifications and antiseptic
injections must be made. Emphysema of sheep can be avoided by
smoothing the canine teeth of dogs which watch the flock. When a
bite is already accompanied with emphysema, a free cutting away of
the skin, at the wound, will prevent its spreading.

The benignity of essential emphysema is like that of localized em-
physema. It ordinarily disappears in a few days, sometimes even iu
a few hours. Massage is useful. Scarifications, recommended by
Lafosse, are superfluous.

IV.

THROMBOSIS AND TRAUMATIC VENOUS EMBOLISM.

Any vein enclosed in a traumatic center is exposed to thrombosis ;
inflammation may al^ect its walls, alter its endothelial layer, and thus
produce coagulation of the blood in the blood-vessel ; if the walls
have been injured, thrombosis almost always starts immediately. Some-
times the clot increases gradually, obliterates the vessel, and extends
forward even to the first collateral {obliterating thrombosis) ; at other
times the coagulation remains still and the canal is yet permeable {pa-
rietal thrombosis). When the diseased vein is enclosed in a non-infected
traumatic center, the intravascular clot is also aseptic. It is habitu-
ally infected in venous thrombosis which occurs in suppurating wounds.

In general, aseptic clots quickly adhere somewhat intimately to the
walls of the blood-vessel ; they are soon infiltrated with embryonic
elements, and become the seat of an organization which ends with the
obliteration of the vein by a fibrous tissue continuous with the vascular
walls. Sometimes it happens that they disintegrate ; portions may get