A USEFUL VETERINARY INSTRUMENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1695, 24 August 1904, Page 67

A USEFUL VETERINARY INSTRUMENT.

It often happens on the (farm or pastoral property that one of the domestio animals receives an injury leaving a more or less dangerous wound. If no veterinary is within reach, the means of bringing the edges of the cut or torn skin together are usually of the roughest, and often for want of suitable instrument the animal is left to take its

chance. The instrument shown in our sketch (from the "''Journal d’Agriculture Pratique”) has been designed by M. Maurice Chavanee, a pupil of the Veterinary School of A!fort. It consists of a handle and needle, which is threaded near the. point, as shown at fig. 1. A needle in this form is easily passed through the edgres of a wound without being touched by the operator’s fingers

before using. The mechanism contained in the hollow handle is extremely simple; the thread is wound on a bobbin of the form shown at fig. 2. The instrument is prepared for use in the following manner;—The centre portion fig. 3) is withdrawn from the handle, and opened, as shown at fig. 4; the bobbin is placed on the upright A; the needle is threaded as shown at fig 3. The handlo is then put over all, and the needle is fastened by a small screw B,

and tho thread is run through the eye at C. For the purpose of sterilisation the instrument thus prepai-ed may be heated in a stove, or put for a short time in boiling water. It is operated in the following manner:—The needle is passed through the edge of the wound from the outside, and through tho opposite si do from tho inside, lire end of tho thread is seized by a pair of nippers, and the needle withdrawn ; the

thread is cut at a proper distance, leaving the needle threaded, and the edges of °tho wound are brought together by means of the thread, and kept in that position by tying. The same operation is performed along tho cut till the wound is closed. The /mf.nve is rapidly

done, without the operator requiring any assistance. Trie instrument has been ve.y highly praised by the French veterinarians.