AN INGENIOUS INVENTION.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 693, 18 June 1903, Page 7

AN INGENIOUS INVENTION.

A Highly ingenious patent, which was originally secured in Paris by M. Vinsot, is a device by which horses can be operated upon with! the utmost safety, and with a total absence of any injury to the animal, which at’ present often occurs through its struggles to rise. Mr Bordeaux, the well-known veterinary sur- ' geon of Moonee Ponds, Victoria, has , brought the invention out to Melbourne. It is really a sort of operating table, and is made of iron, being so constructed as to be available either for a small pony or draught horse. The horse is placed in a species of crush, which, is suspended by means of pivots on two stands. The horse is raised by a broad sling, and his legs securely fastened with green hide padded hobbles to a chain which runs across the bottom of the machine. A padded slide goes under the horse when a lever brings him to a horizontal position resting on the slide. When thus secured the horse is quite incapable of hurting himself or the operator. It is not difficult to see the advantage of the machine, for there is no risk of broken limbs, and the surgeon has entire command of his subject. The photographs on this page show very completely the apparatus and the method adopted for bringing the horse into a horizontal position. Already all the leading veterinary establishments in Europe and America have adopted the new idea, which, indeed. seems bound to be universally used by people whose business is the care of the horse.