168 REVIEWS.

ing the disease from sound to healthy calves. This explanation would accord with the fact that" white scour" may break out in a herd in which there has been no opportunity for infection through the introduction of new calves.

Not the least interesting of Jensen's experiments were those which he made with a view to discovering what doses of germicidal substances might be given with safety to new-born calves. He gave to such a calf 5 grammes of creolin in water, and after that a quantity of milk. On the following day the calf died, and the post-mortem showed the conditions met with in typical "white scour," with the oval bacteria in the bowel. The same effect was produced by administering pyoktannin and trichloride of iodine to healthy calves. Oval bacteria cultivated from these cases proved as virulent as those obtained from natural cases of "white scour," but the morphologically similar bacteria cultivated from the bowel contents of healthy calves were found to have little or no virulence.

If Jensen's view of the pathology of this disease is correct, a simple dietetic error may be the cause of the first case of "white scour" in a lot of calves, and when once the disease is thus lighted up it may spread to other calves through infection with the virulent bacteria contained in the evacuations. From that it would follow that the best means of prevention must consist in avoiding everything that is likely to prove irritant and indigestible in the food; and, when once a case has occurred, in carrying out suitable measures of isolation and d isi n fection.

Manual of Operative Veterinary Surgery. By A. Liautard, M.D., V.M., Principal and Professor of Anatomy, Surgery, Sanitary Medicine and Jurisprudence in the American Veterinary College; Honorary Fellow Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (London), etc. New York: Sabistor ~ Murray. 1892.

THE handsome covers of the volume before us contain nearly 800 pages of text and illustration. The printer's art and the publishers' care have left little which they could add to the attractiveness of the subject chosen by the author, whose relation to veterinary surgery should be a guarantee for the quality of treatment of matters so important, and on which our literature is not extensive.

The work is divided into fifteen chapters. The first fourteen pages are occu­pied by an introduction dealing with generalities and the interpretation of terms, some of which will probably not meet with general acceptance. The follow­ing fifty pages are devoted to "means of restraint," copiously illustrated, and we think as clearly set forth as we can expect such manipulatory exercises to be in print.

REVIEWS.

Surgical amesthesia, its means of production and the accidents associated with it, are dwelt on at length. 'We can scarcely see the. force of stating that the avoidance of pain is not so much an ind)cation for the use of anresthesia in veterinary surgery as in human; while for the "reduction of fractures in larger animals," " neurotomy," and" the application of hobbles" many will be found to doubt the special applicability of anresthesia. The chapters on bandaging, firing, and diseases of the teeth and feet requiring surgical inter­ference, are full, and the illustrations clear and useful. The twenty-four pages dealing with "Hoof-Bound " are suggestive of retrogression and the fallacies of the earlier writers. Indeed, the work draws very largely from the older authors, British and Continental. We fail to find much that is new in it, and, though we would not despise information because it is old, we expect more forcible help in the choice of method or procedure from the extensive experience of one who writes on operative surgery.

Besides matters immediately concerned in surgical operation, retiology, diagnosis, prognosis, and pathological anatomy occupy much space. The use of terms will, we fear, not commend the work to the tastes of those English­speaking people who favour simplicity of language and names. The chapter on operations on the foot covers "diseases and defectuosities" and "vices of conformation." Puncture of the guttural pouches occupies nine pages under the head of "Hyovertebrotomy or Hyospondylotomy." Three pages are devoted to "Crural Myotose" (displacement of the long vastus muscle) and" Crural Myotomy," while "Caudal Myotomy" or "Pricking," which we find on reference to the illustration to represent the old operation of "Nicking," use up ten more. Castration and spaying are entirely omitted. Amputation of the tongue has sixteen lines, and fifteen pages are devoted to "Arytenec­tomy," transcribed from Fleming and Cadiot-an operation said by the author to have yielded results "more or less encouraging. "

In a special paragraph under operations on the skin and cellular tissue we find that a Trochiscus is "an exutory formed of some mineral or vegetable substance possessed of irritating or even caustic properties. They are less frequently used in solipeds but are of more common employment in cattle. In the former, however, lameness of the upper segments of the legs has been successfully relieved by them." We presume this description refers to the issue, of ancient and cruel use.

The space at our disposal is quite inadequate to allow of notice of many important points in this ambitious and imposing book. We conclude our review with a few extracts which will best speak for themselves, as well as for their author and his competent coadjutor, Dr Holt, under whose care, the preface says, the entire text has undergone revision with a view to the improvement of the idiomatic structure.

Referring to the treatment of laminitis, we find the following on page 691 :-" We shall pass silently the effect, so to speak homeopathic, that English veterinarians pretend to obtain with very warm pOUltices around the foot, and which Ilave their reasons only wilen suppuration or gangrene is threatening. "

"Make a puncture upon the line of demarcation of the sole and wall. Often then a flow of pus or blood more or less altered takes place."

At page 547, under" Plantar NellTotomy," we find the operation advised "in contraction of the heels, or in feet subject to chronic corns, as result of their conformation, and in some cases of chronic laminitis, where there is either no alteration of structure, or very little, as well as in keraphylocele."

On page 701, in the description of the treatment of navicular disease we find-" If navicular disease should be accompanied with deviation of the wall, and contraction, true or false, the treatment will be that of this affection in its simple form. An operation often recommended has been that of

170 CLINICAL ARTICLES.

neurotomy upon the posterior branches of the plantar nerves, repeated at intervals of at least fifteen days, in order to remove the lameness wholly, without entirely depriving the foot of the sensibility of feeling."

J. P.

Bacterienkunde und Pathologische Mikroskopie fUr Thierarzte und Studirende der Thiermedicin. Von Th. Kitt. Zweite Auflage. Moritz Perles: Wien, 1893.

THE second edition of Professor Kitt's excellent Manual of Bacteriology and Pathological Microscopy is, as was to be expected, a bulkier volume than its predecessor. The plan of the book remains the same, but the text has grown from 328 to 450 pages. The expansion is mainly in the section dealing with the different pathogenic bacteria of the domesticated animals; the new matter dealing with tetanus, diphtheritic affections, meat-poisoning, and other micro-parasitic diseases whose etiology has been worked out since the first appearance of the work. The illustrations have been increased in number, and also impwved in quality, by substituting clear wood-cuts of drawings made by the author for some of the very imperfect reproductions of micro-photographs that appeared in the first edition.

We warmly commended the book on its first appearance, and, by way of concluding this notice of the second edition, we can only say that the new matter, like the old, is concise and lucid, and that the work is the best guide that we are acquainted with to the practical study of Veterinary Pathology.

CL I N I CAL ART I CLES. --0--

THE CLINICAL HISTORY OF AN OBSCURE CASE.

By R. HUGHES, F.R.C.V.S., Oswestry.

ON 5th September 1892 I was requested to see a valuable hunter belonging to a Master of Hounds in this neighbourhood. The horse was a powerful and promising weight-carrier, rising 5 years old, about 16'2 hands high, bred by the owner, and had taken prizes at several shows as a one, two, and three year old hunting colt. He was taken up early in August to prepare for the season's work, but on the above date was found to be covered with eruptions. I found it a typical case of "urticaria," the eruption showing itself on the face, neck, inside of fore and hind legs, the breast and belly, but with only slight constitutional disturbance. With a change of diet and the usual treatment he got nearly all right, but on resuming work and having his usual food it reappeared on the 29th, with slight swellings under­neath his chest and belly, and on the inside of the, shaft of the left tibia, the latter swelling being very sore to the touch, and a considerable amount of lameness being manifested on moving the horse in his box. There was but little constitutional disturbance even at this stage, viz., pulse 56, temperature I02f, respiration norm~l.

In about a fortnight the diffuse swelling on the thigh subsided, and a distinct bony enlargement was left, with no soreness on manipulation;