LUXATION AND SPRAIN OF THE STIFLE. 957 



veratrin, or the application of the actual cautery may be resorted to. 

 The best results follow deep firing with a fine needle point at a high 

 temperature. Graillot's cautery is very useful for this purpose. 

 Six to eight points may be made round the joint, and, if considered 

 necessary, a blister may be applied. Amongst other injections, a 

 concentrated solution of common salt has lately been recommended. 

 Its action is uncertain and difficult to control, though when the 

 injection produces abscess formation, it certainly acts somewhat 

 like a seton. After recovery from long-existent lameness, particu- 

 larly from lameness produced mechanically, the horse should not 

 immediately be put to work, and heavy draught should especially be 

 avoided. 



An occasional cause of hip lameness in old horses is to be found in 

 ossification of the fascia covering the gluteal muscles. Dollar 

 diagnosed during life and removed after death, from the gluteal region, 

 a cribriform plate of bone measuring 10 inches long, 7 wide, and at 

 its thickest point | an inch thick. Properly speaking, this plate 

 was double, and a space existed between the external and internal 

 layers. Laquerriere saw and removed a plate of bone about 5 inches 

 in length and 1\ inches in breadth from the external crural region. 

 The horse, which had previously been lame, was at once cured. 

 Cadiot saw ossification of the tendon of the semi-tendinosus muscle. 

 The bony plate was triangular ; the base uppermost. It measured 

 6 inches in length by 3 in breadth, the point being embedded in the 

 tendon of the semi-tendinosus muscle. (See Cadiot and Dollar's 

 l * Clinical Veterinary Medicine and Surgery.") 



B. DISEASES OF THE STIFLE-JOINT. 



The two divisions of the femoro-tibial joint formed by the condyles 

 of the femur, the inter-articular fibro-cartilages and the head of the tibia, 

 often communicate with the femoro-patellar joint, which is formed by the 

 femoral trochlea and the patella. The synovial membrane of the external 

 femoro-tibial joint covers the tendon of the popliteus, and invests the 

 common tendon of the extensor pedis and flexor metatarsi muscles. In 

 the horse, a bursa (b. prepatellaris), varying from the size of a bean to 

 that of a walmit, is found on the upper part of the anterior surface of the 

 patella. 



I.— LUXATION AND SPRAIN OF THE FEMORO TIBIAL JOINT. 



The femoro-tibial joint has broad articular surfaces, and a powerful 

 ligamentous apparatus. It is surrounded by strong muscles and 

 tendons, whilst the tibial spine projects between the condyles of the 

 femur, and the relations of the two bones are so secured that in 



