To this species of injury the horse is much exposed from the recklessness or incompetence of those who assume to hold the reins of authority. Occurrences which are politely termed "accidents," generally entail suffering upon the blameless animal. The common provocatives of such accidents are either the drunkenness of man or his utter ignorance of the mental attributes of the quadruped he has possession of. The first cause shall be passed over in disgust; the second merits some consideration, being rather a universal than an individual fault.
When a horse pauses, always endeavor to ascertain the motive; the reason may be groundless. By gentleness, convince the creature that its fears are without foundation, and you earn a supremacy as well as win a gratitude which will always be cheerfully acknowledged. Never employ the whip to correct "the obstinacy of the brute." The horse is naturally very fearful; were it not so, man would never have obtained that mastery which is imperative for domestication. Elderly gentlemen should never thrust their heads out of carriage windows and shout to the driver to "go on." Such implied chiding may urge the coachman to display severity, and the horse is dangerous when alarmed. So long as the animal continues calm, the superiority of man is submitted to; but once excite the terror of the quadruped, and all earthly restraint is powerless. Dread assumes the form of the wildest fury, and the horse tears onward, insensible to mortal punishment and blind to every danger.
It is in this manner the most terrible wounds are produced. Such injuries, in surgical language, are defined to be "solutions of continuity," or "separations of the skin and soft parts underneath." Neither of these definitions, however, includes a bruise or a contused wound. Therefore, for the present purpose, a wound will be interpreted an injury inflicted by external violence.
A lacerated wound may be too trivial to attract the surgeon's notice, as a scratch. It may also be a very serious affair, as when a cart-wheel runs against a horse's thigh, tearing the flesh asunder. Laceration is generally accompanied by contusion, though contusion forms no necessary part of a lacerated wound. When such injuries are inflicted, they are mostly followed by little hemorrhage; yet it is far from unusual for an animal thus hurt to perish. Shock to the system is the most serious of the primary effects. Beyond that the immediate consequence appears to be insignificant. Little blood is lost, for the vessels are stimulated by the violence which rends these tubes and the soft structures asunder. Stimulation causes the torn mouths of the arteries and veins to close or to retract. The ragged coats of the vessels, the loose fibers of the flesh, and the jagged cellular tissue likewise fall over the orifices, and help to stay the flow of the vital current.
DIAGRAM OF A SEVERE
LACERATED WOUND.
The dangers attending lacerated wounds spring, in the first instance, from collapse. This possibility being overcome, the immediate peril has been surmounted; all injuries of this nature are commonly attended, however, with more or less contusion. The force necessary to tear open a portion of the body will, of necessity, bruise or kill some part of the flesh. Any animal substance, when deprived of vitality, must be cast off by a living body; a slough must follow. Now that process is attended with hazard in proportion as it is tardily accomplished. The period of its occurrence is always one of anxiety; for when this process takes place, the stimulation that originally caused the vessels to retract no longer exists. All mechanical opposition to hemorrhage is, with the loss of the dead matter, generally removed. Everything, therefore, depends upon the fibrinous deposit—a sort of glutinous material secreted by the body, which is commonly largely poured forth when any slough by natural and speedy action is effected. Should the frame be so far debilitated as to prevent all secretion of fibrin, the most frightful bleeding must ensue.
The horse which has not recovered from the original injury will then sink under the terrible depletion. Therefore, it is impossible to form any opinion of the injurious effects or of the consequences likely to follow a lacerated wound before some time has elapsed.
An incised wound implies a division, more or less deep, of the soft parts. This form of injury produces less shock to the system, and generally heals more quickly than any other. The principal danger is encountered at the moment when the wound is inflicted; vessels may be sundered, and they are cut in twain with the least possible irritation to the parts within which they are situated. The veins and arteries, therefore, do not generally retract any more than do the soft structures. A gash into a fleshy substance always produces a gaping wound, which is wide in proportion to the depth and length of the injury. From that hurt the dark-colored venous blood drains in a stream, while the bright scarlet or arterial blood is propelled forth in jets, sometimes to a considerable distance. These jets correspond with the pulsations of the heart; but as syncope or fainting takes place, the emission ceases with the beating of the circulatory center.
