284 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



and the patient succumbs to the exhausting effects of protracted suffering 

 associated with blood-poisoning. 



On the whole these cases offer but little hope of successful treatment. 



The system should be sustained by good food, with stimulants when 

 required, and the local treatment should be pursued on the lines laid down 

 for acute synovitis. 



LOOSE CARTILAGES IN JOINTS 



It sometimes occurs that small bodies, varying in size from a pea to a 

 walnut, are found loose in the cavities of joints, especially the larger ones, 

 such as the stifle, hock, or knee. 



These formations are generally ovoid in shape and somewhat flattened. 

 In colour they are yellowish-gray or grayish-white, and vary in composition 

 not only in diflerent cases but in the same joint. 



Some are composed of cartilage or fibro-cartilage, interspersed or not 

 Avith bony matter, while a few are almost entirely made up of the last- 

 named substance. 



Some of these formations originate as outgrowths from the internal 

 surface of the synovial membrane, from which they hang suspended for a 

 time, and are then broken away by the movements of the joint and become 

 free or, as they are termed, " loose cartilages ". 



Others more distinctly cartilaginous in type commence as small ex- 

 crescences along the margin of the articular cartilage, and these, like those 

 last referred to, are rubbed off, and when disconnected move about the 

 joint, interfering with action and causing pain and lameness, which may be 

 continuous or intermittent. 



As to whether these excrescences grow after their detachment from their 

 place of origin it would be difficult to say, but there is reason to think that 

 such is sometimes the case. 



Symptoms. — While connected with the synovial membrane or the 

 cartilage these growths may occasion very little disturbance, and even when 

 detached, small ones, while in a soft, fibrous, or cartilaginous condition, do 

 not seriously interfere with action ; but the larger and harder ones provoke 

 serious attacks of lameness by becoming fixed between the ends of the 

 bones and the capsular membrane and otherwise damaging the joint. 



In a case which occurred in a three-year-old colt under the care of the 

 late Mr. Joseph Axe of Doncaster, and which the writer had an opportunity 

 of seeing and examining after death, the patient was slightly lame of the 

 near hind - leg for several weeks before the seat of lameness could be 

 localized. Suddenly the animal became incajjable of advancing the limb. 



