234 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



and heavily suppurative, little can be done more than to put in prac- 

 tice the expectant method with warm fomentations, repeatedly ap- 

 plied, and soothing mucilaginous poultices. Improvement, if any 

 is possible, will be but slow to manifest itself. The most difficult of 

 all things to do, in view of varying interests and opinions that is, 

 in a practical sense is to abstain from doing entirely, and yet we 

 are firmly convinced that noninterference in the cases we are con- 

 sidering is the best and wisest policy. 



In cases which are carried to a successful result the discharge will 

 by degrees diminish, the extreme pain will gradually subside, and the 

 convalescent will begin timidly to rest his foot upon the ground, and 

 presently to bear weight upon it, and perhaps, after a long and tedi- 

 ous process of recuperation, he may be returned to his former and 

 normal condition of usefulness. When the discharge has wholly 

 ceased and the wounds are entirely healed, a blister covering the 

 whole of the joint for the purpose of stimulating the absorption of 

 the exudation will be of great service. But if, on the contrary, there 

 is no amelioration of symptoms and the progress of the disease resists 

 every attempt to check it ; if the discharge continues to flow, not only 

 without abatement, but in an increased volume, and not alone by a 

 single opening, but by a number of fistulous tracts which have succes- 

 sively formed ; if it seems evident that this drainage is rapidly and 

 painfully sapping the suffering animal's vitality, and a deficient vis 

 vitse fails to co-operate with the means of cure all rational hope of 

 recovery may be finally abandoned. Any further waiting for 

 chances, or time lost in experimenting, will be mere cruelty and there 

 need be no hesitation concerning the next step. The poor beast is 

 under sentence of death, and every consideration of interest and of 

 humanity demands an anticipation of nature's evident intent in the 

 quick and easy execution of the sentence. 



One of the essentials of treatment, and probably an indispensable 

 condition when recovery is in any wise attainable, is the suspension 

 of the patient in slings. He should be continued in them as long as 

 he can be made to submit quietly to their restraint. 



DISLOCATIONS. 



Dislocations and luxations are interchangeable terms, meaning 

 the separation and displacement of the articulating surfaces of the 

 bones entering into the formation of a joint. This injury is rarely 

 encountered in our large animals on account of the combination of 

 strength and solidity in the formation of their joints. It is met with 

 but seldom in cattle and less so in horses, while dogs and smaller 

 animals are more often the sufferers. 



Cause. The accident of luxation is less often encountered in 

 the animal races than in man. This is not because the former are 

 less subject to occasional violence involving powerful muscular con- 

 tractions, or are less often exposed to casualties similar to those which 

 result in luxations in the human skeleton, but because it requires the 

 co-operation of conditions anatomical, physiological, and perhaps 

 mechanical present in the human race and lacking in the others, 

 which, however, can not in every case be clearly defined. Perhaps 



