_Operations_.--Never hesitate to open an abscess if you think, or rather, if you are about half sure, there is matter in it. Afterwards foment with warm water. Poultices are unhandy. If the cat's leg has been severely lacerated and broken in a trap, and there seems little likelihood of its being able to heal, cut it off. Do it quietly, gently, and firmly; the ragged edge of the bone may be sawn off with a table-knife made into a saw with a file. (I cut a man's finger off the other day with the same instrument. About a fortnight after, the commander, sitting at luncheon, made the innocent remark: "This knife is rather blunt, steward. I'm hanged!" he roared, immediately after, as he dashed the knife through the open port, "I'm hanged if it isn't the doctor's saw!") Be sure to leave enough flesh to form a flap to cover the bone; stop the bleeding with the actual cautery, then sew up and dress the wound in sticking plaster; only leave room for the egress of matter. Painful operations of this sort are always better performed under chloroform. Lay the cat on her side (rolled in the shawl) on some one else's knee, pour a little chloroform into a handkerchief, and hold it _near, not on_ pussy's nose, or you will smother her. As soon as one portion of the chloroform gets evaporated supply its place with more; in from five to ten minutes pussy will be in the land of nod. _Consumption_.--Consumption in the cat is curable, because it is not necessarily disease of the lungs. The term is used to denote all sorts of wasting disease in which pussy falls away in flesh, in coat, and in general health. The treatment must be careful--regulation of the diet and attention to her housing, an occasional mild purgative and dose of sulphur-butter. You may give her raw meat steeped in wine if she will take it; but remember your great sheet-anchor in the care of all these cases is _cod-liver oil_, a dessert spoonful every day, or even more. And you may supplement the treatment most advantageously by giving, twice a day, the sixth of a grain of quinine. One word of warning to cat-fanciers before I close this chapter. _Never ask a veterinary surgeon about your cat_. Their knowledge of canine ailments is vastly behind the times; their knowledge of cat diseases is simply and literally _carte blanche_. If you want your pussy killed or tormented to death, _go to a chemist_. The chemists in this country, through their ignorance, and impudent assumption of medical knowledge, slay their thousands annually. Their ignorant patients, however, go with their eyes open, and place themselves in chemists' hands. Well, as a paternal government refuses to protect the people, let the chemists go ahead and poison away; but, if warning of mine will be heard and heeded, they shall not poison our pussies too. CHAPTER TEN. DISEASES OF CATS--CONTINUED.