It is impossible always to distinguish the first and third from the second; therefore, in a case of this kind, it is advisable to cut into the excrescence as soon as it is large enough to be operated upon. When the warts are ascertained to be inclosed in a defined cuticular shell, the quickest and the more humane practice is to take a sharp-pointed knife and impale them, or run the blade through each in succession. The edge should be away from the skin, and the knife being withdrawn with an upward, cutting motion, the sac and substance are both sundered. This accomplished, the interior is easily removed and all that can subsequently be necessary is to occasionally touch the part with the solution of the chloride of zinc, one grain to the ounce of water.
When the growth proves of the fixed cartilaginous kind, no time should be lost in its removal. The quickest plan—and not, perhaps, the most painful method—of doing this is by means of the knife. The excrescence should be thoroughly excised, being sundered at the base. Some bleeding will follow. This may be readily commanded by having at hand a saucepan of water boiling on a small fire. Into the heated liquid a budding-iron should be placed, by which artifice sufficient heat is obtained to stimulate the open mouths of the vessels when the instrument is applied to the bleeding surface, without any danger being incurred of destroying the living flesh.
Should excision be objected to, the next best plan is the use of caustic. Strong acetic acid, only to be generally obtained as aromatic vinegar, is the mildest cautery; the next in strength is butter of antimony; after that, ranks nitrate of silver, or lunar caustic; and lastly, comes a preparation invented by Mr. Woodger, to whose perceptions the veterinary profession is so largely indebted. It consists of sulphuric acid, made into a paste with powdered sulphur, and applied by means of a flat piece of wood.
Whichever remedy is adopted, it must be remembered that the application will occupy time in exact proportion to the mildness of the means employed. It may also be proper to hint to the reader that, as an animal has no foreknowledge to alarm its anticipatory fears, and as, the anguish past, the mind of the creature does not linger upon painful recollections, probably the knife is to be very much preferred.
Some people remove warts by ligatures. To this custom the author strongly objects, for the following reasons: Because the process is slow; because the pain is great and continuous, till the removal is accomplished; because the ligature soon becomes filthy, the wart, when large, often turning putrid before it falls off; and because, when small, the breadth of base and the slight projection render fixing a ligature an utter impossibility.
TUMORS.
AN ABNORMAL GROWTH UPON A HORSE'S CHEST.
It is impossible to particularize the nature of every tumor to which the horse is subject, such formations being so very various. Seldom are two cases met with in which a precisely similar structure is developed. More seldom are two cases encountered located upon the same part. These growths are liable to every possible change. One may be very small, but extremely malignant, or of that kind which seems to resent the slightest interference. Employ the knife to this last sort, and incurable ulceration may start up. All remedies may be powerless and the life may be sacrificed. Such growths are, happily, rare in the equine species; but the author has heard of their occurrence, although it has not been his misfortune to encounter one. Another shall be of such enormous size as to impede the motions, yet will be perfectly bland in its nature. A portrait, not of the largest tumor which the writer has witnessed, but of the most awkwardly situated, is represented herewith. It was not malignant. The horse which carried about this burden was brought to the veterinary college during the time when the author was attached to that establishment. The animal had previously been under the treatment of various veterinary surgeons. All had cut and cauterized the enlargement, but without reducing its magnitude. The wounds healed quickly, and the constitution appeared not to be in the slightest manner affected.