174 WOUND TREATMENT 



mentation is permissible; tlie inspection 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. 



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 applications are 

 seldom necessary, and unless the wound has been very 

 large and is very severely infected, good, healthy granu- 

 lations and no synovia are present after the first twenty- 

 four or forty-eight hours. 



Chronic, Infected, Purulent Joints 



The treatment of these is radical. While it happens 

 now and then that cases of this kind recover with dila- 

 tory methods of treatment, it is only by radical pro- 

 cedure that prompt and positive results can be ob- 

 tained. 



The various articulations of the equine present vary- 

 ing degrees of severity and obstinacy in this affection. 

 The elbow joint stands at the head of the list of fatal 

 terminations. I would class the coffin joint second. 

 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 is 

 any other treatment) in cases where the patient is down 

 and refuses to eat. Such cases rally occasionally for a 

 temporary period, only to go down again later and die. 

 If the surgeon will select for this treatment cases which 

 are, while moderately grave, still in good general con- 

 dition, or even fair, he can promise his client good 

 results. • 



