A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners.

  • Christopher Heath
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    72/256 (page 48)
    When, as often happens, the dog has merely sna])ped, and perhaps grazed or only marked the nkin, no treat- ment is really required, though it may be advisable to give the patient some evaporating lotion as a placebo, together with a few^ words of assurance as to his safety. Where a wound is actually inflicted, if recent, it m&y be cauterized with nitrate of silver; or, if there are really any suspicions as to the state of the animal, it will be only safe to give the patient chloroform and excise the edges of the wound, taking care to go quite to the bottom, or where this is impossible, the actual cautery will form an efficient substitute. Both pa- tient and animal should be kept under surveillance for some weeks, if possible, in order that ajiy symptoms may be treated as early as possible. The bite of a cat is even more dangerous than that of a dog ; but that of the horse is only important on account of the severe local injury generally inflicted when this animal indulges his biting propensities. The sting of the addisr is the only common accident of the kind met with in. this country. The treatment consists in the extraction of the poison by sucking the wound, or applying cupping-glasses, after whiish a poultice is the best application. The vital powers are severely and rapidly depressed by the absorption of the poison, and mvist be supported by the free ad- ministration of ammonia, ether, brandy, &c. In the rare cases in this country of bites by tropical serpents, the rapid administration of diffusible stimulants and the use of artificial respiration form the appropriate treatment. Siispended animation (hanging, drowning, &c.^.— Drowning is the most common cause of suspended animation, though cases of hanging and suffocation from noxious gases occasionally occur. In all cases the object is the same, viz., to restore the action of the heart, which may be most readily accomplished by resorting to artificial respiration, combined with