SCROFULOUS OSTITIS. 163 



the larger joints, or those having extensive motion, as the true 

 hock-joint or elbow, be already opened by the suppuration, the 

 case may be looked upon as hopeless. 



If treatment is to be adopted, it must in the first place be 

 directed to the removal of all extrinsic causes ; secondly, to pro- 

 mote a better condition of the system generally ; and thirdly, 

 to modify the local manifestations of the disease. 



In order to promote a better tone of the system, attention 

 must be paid to the state of the digestive organs. Diarrhoea 

 may be present, the fseces containing clots of curdled milk, 

 mixed with much mucus, foetid in odour, and irritating to the 

 anus ; or the bowels may be constipated. In both conditions, 

 a very gentle laxative, as four ounces of castor oil, with two 

 drams of the bicarbohate of soda, may be given ; and when 

 the bowels are restored to their proper state, a pint of lime 

 water in a little milk two or three times daily, in addition to 

 half-ounce doses of the syrup of the compound phosphates or 

 " chemical food" twice per day. I can speak with great con- 

 fidence of the phosphates as being most beneficial in all debili- 

 tating diseases of young animals. Great care must be taken to 

 see that the patient suckles its mother sufficiently often, and 

 if he be unable to stand to do so, he must be lifted and held up. 

 If the mother has not sufficient milk, the deficiency must be 

 supplied with cow's milk, care being taken that this does not 

 constipate the bowels ; the addition of a small quantity of 

 sugar or treacle to it will be useful. The mother must rest 

 from work, and be supplied with good food ; a mixture of beans, 

 oats, bran, and grass if in season, will be most suitable. 



The lime water is recommended as an antacid. At one time 

 it was supposed to supply lime to the bones ; it is now held that 

 the bone diseases of the young are not due to the want of lime, 

 but to its elimination from the system by the kidneys. Autho- 

 rities, however, are divided upon this subject. 



The Local Treatment. — If the urachus be pervious, the patient 

 is to be cast, and a suture tied round the umbilical cord. In 

 performing this operation, the following rules ought to be 

 remembered: — 1st. No rope is needed to throw a young foal. 

 2d. The suture must be thick, as thick as the cord which is used 

 for window blinds, and made of string or cord, in preference to 

 metallic wire or caustic clam, for the following reasons : — that 



