A Register of Experiments Performed on Living Animals

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: years, an insight into the mechanism of the circulation in minute bloodvessels, such as cannot, by possibility, have met the eye of human surgeons when practising upon their fellow-creatures; and I feel very much inclined to assume, that few, even of the most practical veterinarians, have been indulged...
More Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: years, an insight into the mechanism of the circulation in minute bloodvessels, such as cannot, by possibility, have met the eye of human surgeons when practising upon their fellow-creatures; and I feel very much inclined to assume, that few, even of the most practical veterinarians, have been indulged with the like inspection of the movement of the living bloodvessels. My reasons for such supposed exclusiveness are, First, the human surgeon penetrates to the seat of disease invariably by an incision through the skin or common integuments by a scalpel, or cold steel in some shape or other; blood necessarily follows; and hence a physiological view of the circulation within the vessels is veiled from his sight. On the contrary, in my operations upon horses by cautery lesions, for the removal of chronic lamenesses, consisting of thickened ligaments, tendons, and especially spavin, this last disease being a chronic tumour upon the hock joint, I invariably make an incision through the skin in its centre, from top to bottom. This is also effected by a steel instrument with a knife-like edge, but, observe, red hot The instant the skin is severed, a considerable dilatation of the lips of the wound ensues, the tumour is exposed to view, and, in three instances out of four, without the escape of a single drop of blood, or stain sufficient to soil a white handkerchief, and notwithstanding the horse's hide at this part is very thick; the subcutaneous tissues continue for the space of several minutes, presenting a most interesting spectacle to the inquiring physiologist as regards the smaller bloodvessel system. Secondly, that veterinarians, generally speaking, do not practise these deep cautery lesions. The cellular membrane and fascias have an aspect delicately white, upon the surface of...