Are easily treated in the dog, because his skin is very readily healed, though not so speedily or in the same manner as that of man. In man a clean cut, if properly treated, heals as if by magic; and in three days large surfaces of many inches in extent will often be firmly healed by a kind of glue thrown out from the cut surfaces, which afterwards becomes organised. In the dog and horse, however, no such glue is thrown out, and the oozing is always of a watery nature; so that apposition must always be maintained by stitches, and even they are only of use in preventing extreme displacement while they remain inserted. In slight cuts, tears, and bites, therefore, it is better to leave them alone to the healing powers of the dog's tongue; but in those cases where a large flap is torn down, as in the legs, for instance, a stitch or two should always be inserted, over which a bandage should be fixed, and the- dog kept muzzled until union takes place. Without the last precaution stitches and bandages are of no use, since the dog will always manage to remove them, and will tear out any stitches which may be inserted, however carefully they may be tied.

The first thing to be done is to wash the parts, if dirty, and then with a common needle and thread to put in several stitches, according to the extent of the wound; but only fixing it so as to keep it nearly in position, for an exact adaptation is of no use whatever. In putting in the stitches, the following is the plan to be adopted: take the needle and thread and insert it in the outside of the skin, on one side of the wound, and bring it out on the inside; then pass it from the inside towards the out of the opposite part of the corresponding flap on the other side, and tie the ends so as to close the wound. Repeat this as often as necessary, and cover all up with the bandage as already directed. After four or five days the threads may be cut and removed, because they are no longer serviceable, and only serve to irritate the skin; and from this time the whole dependence must be placed upon the bandage in keeping the parts together. In some parts - as, for instance, the flank, a bandage can scarcely be applied; but even there it is wonderful how nature fills up an apparently irremediable gap. I have often seen a flap torn down by a spike, which has hung down from the flank for five or six inches, but at the end of a month scarcely any scar can be seen.

The owner therefore need never despair as long as the skin only is the seat of the accident; but when the abdominal muscles also are torn the bowels are apt to protrude, and the parts, if left to themselves, will never regain their original condition. Here a circular stitch must be practised, so as to pucker up the parts like the mouth of an old-fashioned purse, and if the walls are thick enough the plan may be practised with success; but in the thin tendinous expansions covering the middle of the belly there is great difficulty in carrying out this plan of rectifying the injury. The mode by which nature heals all the wounds of the dog is by granulation, in which small red bladders are thrown out by both surfaces, which, after they are in contact for some hours or days, coalesce and form a bond of union; but if they are allowed to rub against each other this union cannot take place, and the growth is confined to the angle of the wound only. Hence the use and necessity of a bandage, which keeps the two surfaces in close contact, and hastens the cure in a remark-able manner; effecting in ten days what would often require ten weeks if left to the dog's tongue alone.

When the granulations rise above the level of the surrounding skin, a piece of bluestone may be rubbed over them daily; and if the whole sore is too red, and the granulations large and smooth, a little friar's balsam may be brushed over it; or, what is far better, a solution of nitrate of silver, of the strength of from three to eight grains to an ounce of distilled water.