DISEASES OF JOINTS. 329 



which may have remained intact or may have been more or less exten- 

 sively lacerated. It seldom happens that more than one toe at a 

 time will turn up, yet still the lesion in one will be followed by its 

 occurrence in another. Commonly two feet, either the anterior or 

 posterior, are affected, and we recall one case in which the two fore 

 and one of the hind legs were included at the same time. The acci- 

 dent, however, is quite as likely to happen while the horse is at rest 

 in his stall, and he ma}^ be found in the morning standing on his 

 fetlocks. One of the earliest of the cases occuring in my own expe- 

 rience had been under care for several weeks for suspected disease 

 of the fetlocks, the nature of which had not been made out, when, 

 apparent!}^, improved by the treatment which he had undergone, the 

 patient was taken out of the stable to be walked a short distance into 

 the country, but had little more than started when he was called to 

 a halt by the fracture of the sesamoids of both fore legs. 



While there are no positive premonitory symptoms known of these 

 fractures, we believe that there are signs and symptoms which come 

 but little short of being so, and the appearance of which will always 

 justify a strong suspicion of the truth of the case. These have been 

 indicated when referring to the soreness in standing, the short min- 

 cing gait, and the tenderness betrayed when pressure is made over the 

 sesamoids on the sides of the fetlock, with others less tangible and 

 definable. 



Prognosis. — These injuries can never be accounted less than seri- 

 ous, and in our judgment will never be other than fatal. If our 

 theorj^ of their pathology is the correct one, and the cause of the 

 lesions is truly the softening of the sesamoidal bony structure and 

 independent of any changes in the ligamentous fibers, the possibility 

 of a solid osseous union can hardly be considered admissible. 



Treatment. — In respect to the treatment to be recommended and 

 instituted it can only be employed with any rational hope of benefit 

 during the incubation, and with the anticipatory purpose of preven- 

 tion. It must be suggested by a suspicion of the verities of the case, 

 and applied before any rupture has taken place. To prevent this and 

 to antagonize the causes which might i^recipitate the final catastro- 

 phe — the elevation of the toes — resort must be had to the slings and 

 to the application of firm bandages or splints, perhaps of plaster of 

 Paris, with a high shoe, as about the only indications which science 

 and nature are able to offer. AMien the fracture is an occurred event, 

 and the toes, one or more, are turned up, any further resort to treat- 

 ment Avill be futile. 



DISEASES or JOINTS. 



Three classes of injury will be considered under this head. These 

 are, affections of the synovial sacs; those of the joint structures, or of 



