20 SPECIAL VETERINARY THERAPY 



be removed and the wound carefully inspected for 

 synovia. No instrumentation is permissable; the in- 

 spection is confined to looking into the wound for 

 traces of synovia. If no synovia is to be seen the 

 wound is treated along regular lines ; ordinarily as de- 

 scribed for wire-cuts. 



If synovia is present in the wound, the treatment 

 is repeated as on the first occasion and again left on 

 for twenty-four hours. More than two such applica- 

 ions are seldom necessary and unless the wound has 

 been very large and is very severely infected, good 

 healthy granulations and no synovia are present after 

 the first twenty-four or forty-eight hours. 



2. Chronic, Infected, Purulent Joints. The 

 treatment of these is radical. While it happens now 

 and then that cases of this kind recover with dilatory 

 methods of treatment, it is only by radical procedure 

 that prompt and positive results can be obtained. 



The various articulations of the equine present 

 varying degrees of severity and obstinacy in this afifec- 

 tion. The elbow joint stands at the head of the list of 

 fatal terminations. I would class the coffin joint sec- 

 ond; next in order I would place the hock; last, the 

 stifle. 



The following method of treatment is always suc- 

 cessful in cases in which the patient has not become 

 greatly emaciated and still retains the greater part of 

 his vitality and good spirits. It is successful in fifty 

 per cent of the latter cases but it is of no avail (nor 

 any other treatment) in cases where the patient is 

 down and refuses to eat. Such cases rally occasionally 



