VETERINARY SURGERY. Vc 'erinary surgery is the art of healing local injuries and certain diseases of domestic animals by oper ative procedure and instrumental treatment. It includes also certain operations, that when per formed render animals more submissive and more serviceable to man. Surgery in all coun tries is as old as human needs. A certain skill in arresting hemorrhage, the binding up of wounds, the supporting of broken limbs by splints, and the like, together with an instinc tive reliance on the healing power of tissues, has been common to men everywhere. Veterinary surgery began in all probability with the domes tication of the horse which occurred in Europe before the dawn of history. There is evidence that the Egyptians practised veterinary surgery in very remote times; but not until we turn to the Greeks do we obtain any very definite inforination regarding the state of veterinary surgical practice in antiquity. The writings of Hippocrates (460-377 a.c.) afford evidence of investigations in comparative pathology. Dio cies of Carystus was one of the first to occupy himself with anatomy, which he studied in ani mals. Aristotle wrote on physiology and com parative anatomy, and on the maladies of ani mals, while many other Greek writers on veten nary medicine are cited or copied from by Varro, Columella and Galen. Mago of Cartilage (200 B.c.) wrote a work of 28 books which was translated into Greelc and largely used by Varro and Columens. Veterinary surgery in its prog ress has kept pace with human surgery because the principles of surgery wherever pracused are the same. Every advance made in human medicine affects likewise the progress of veten nary science, and the invaluable investigations of Davaine, Pasteur, Chauveau, Lister and Koch have created as great a revolution in yetennary practice as in human practice. Veterinary sur gery is limited somewhat in its applicauon. in practice as cotnpared with the practical applica tion of human surgery. This is due to the sub servient purposes for which the domestic ani mals are reared and used, and to the insur mountable difficulties of diagnosis and post operative control. The amount of care and attention given to the improvement of the physical condition and general health of domes tic animals is measured by the Immo/ledge the owner has acquired as to how his animals may be best fitted to serve his purpose. The amount of medical or surgical attention given an ani rnal is measured by the cost in 'comparison with the results obtained. Perfect restoration of function being usually demanded in veterinary surgery, many operations common in human practice must either be renounced or very sel dom performed. It is, therefore, often neces
sary to consider whether operation is justified or whether slaughter be not preferable.
Owners as a class have quite ezroneous im pressions of the results to be expected. Many are not satisfied even when the animal's use fulness is completely restored because perhaps a trifling blemish remains. Some seem in capable of understanding that a certain tirne is necessary for recovery. They imagine that heal ing can be forced, become impatient and in a few moments destroy by clumsy interference or too early use of the anitnal the results of weeks of sk;11, afterward seeking to hold the operator answerable. In veterinary surgery the conditions for rapid healing are much less favorable than in human practice. The veteri nary surgeon is handicapped in his operative work by the active opposition of the animal, the natural uncleanliness of the patient's body, the unsatisfactory surroundings in which the operation must ofttimes be performed and the hazards of amesthesia. And he is finally ham pered in his post-operative management of the case by the lack ot any instinct of self-care or self-protection on the part of the patient, the difficulties of post-operative control, and fre quently, the itnpossibili of shielding the wound from tnjurions external influences and the great cost of sustenance and proper care dttring long periods of convalescence. These limitations to vetennary surgery often render success imper fect even with the greatest care and attention to detail and are so harmful against the enlarge ment of the scope of veterinary surgery that there has never been a demand for the specialist from whom an elaboration of veterinary surgi cal knowledge should come. On the contrary every veterinary practitioner must be more or less of a surgeon himself in order to meet the demands of his daily work, and since his mind is occupied in so many different directions he finds little time to enrich the fund of surgical knowledge by fruitful investigations and re search. He finds little opportunity to acquire that lcnowledge of detail, that degree of skill, that practical experience upon which a success ful surgical career actually depends. And un like the human physician he is denied the op portunity of consultations with the convenient specialist who by reason of a broad experience is capable of performing complicated and in tricate operations against diseases which .the general practitioner cannot hope even to (hag nose, to prognosticate or meddle with because such specialists do not exist in the veterinary profession.