STRAIN OF THE STIFLE-JOIXT. 229 



dozen, and losing nine months' time, he found his horse worse 

 than at the commencement. He again applied to me, and 

 agreed to submit to my treatment. 



Treatment. — I first bled him about six quarts from the large 

 vein (the plate-vein) in the forearm, and the next day gave a 

 physic. I also inserted four rowels as near as possible to the 

 seat of the injuiy; one in front of the shoulder-joint, just 

 below the surface against which the collar presses, and another 

 a little above the elbow-joint and to the inside of the arm, near 

 the union of the arm with the body, and another behind the 

 elbow-joint, and the fourth one about four inches above this, 

 immediately behind the shoulder, at its union with the body. 

 I kept these rowels running about twenty days, and then 

 allowed them to heal. I kept him quiet, or allowed but little 

 exercise, and ordered soft feed. After the rowels Cjuit running, 

 I ordered nothing further but rest for a few weeks. The lame- 

 ness disappeared as the rowels healed, and, two months and a 

 half after commencing the treatment of the case, the horse was 

 being used in his ordinary work. It has now been over three 

 years since he was treated, and he has not lost a day's work. 



STRAIN OF THE STIFLE-JOINT. 



The stifle-joint is composed of the union of the lower end of 

 the upper thigh-bone with the head of the lower and larger 

 thigh-bone and the patella, or knee-pan, forming the front part 

 of the joint. This joint is a very strong and complicated one, 

 and difficult to describe. It corresponds to the knee-joint of 

 the human. This joint is sometimes dislocated, or put out of 

 place, and occasionally strained ; though it is very important to 

 remark that strain of the stifle-joint is by no means so frequent 

 as is generally supposed. This injuiy is sometimes called 

 "5^?/?^," or the horse is said to be '-'•stifled^ It is veiy com- 

 mon for the ignorant farrier, or the conceited pretender, to 

 pronounce any lameness of the hind parts, which he does not 



