icient time to soften, and no more--for the water of too great
a heat shrivels up as well as softens the gutta percha--he draws forth one
ribbon, and this he moulds to the front of the sound leg.

That done, he takes another piece of the gutta percha, and this he models
to the hind part of the sound leg. The remaining slip is fixed to the
side of the limb. After the pliable gutta percha has been forced to assume
the shape desired, it is the practice of the writer to cover it with a
cloth saturated in cold spring water, to hasten the setting of the
material, and thereby shorten a process which always renders the dog
somewhat uneasy. All this accomplished, he next braces the splints
together, and fixes them upon the limb, by means of a long piece of tape;
putting under them, next to the skin of the animal, a quantity of lint to
prevent the gutta percha from irritating the flesh. The tapes he also runs
through the holes previously made, and winds about the limb, or over the
splints--rather, but not too tightly in the first instance--with the
intent of arousing the restorative amount of inflammation. This quantity
of inflammation, the reader may imagine, would be certain to ensue on so
violent an injury as the separation of the hard supports of the body; but
in this he is mistaken. I have known a favorite hound to break at once the
four metatarsal bones, and though the splints necessary to promote a union
were kept on above two months, nothing of the kind took place; at the end
of which time all bandages were removed, and his movements effected the
cure which my appliances were unable to bring about. Some persons even
advocate taking off all bandages from a broken leg, and sending the dog
for a walk, where union is tardy; but people who use such language talk
about that, concerning which they literally know nothing. It is not one
walk which will produce the desired effect; but repeated walks are
required to accomplish what appears to the ignorant so certain to occur.
Thus, to do nothing is far better in some cases than to perform much;
since the absence of remedies accomplishes that which all the
paraphernalia of the surgery is unable to produce.

There are cases, however, which cannot get well of themselves, unless
deformity be esteemed of no consequence. Thus, when the radius and ulna
are snapped right across, and the foot, deprived of all support, dangles
at the end of the limb; here the interposition of surgical agency i