SPRAIN OF RADIAL LIGAMENT. 265 



turbed for five or six days if no inconvenience is caused to the 

 patient ; but if any signs of pain are manifested, it should be 

 removed and readjusted. The puncture in the skin must be 

 kept open (and the best plan to do this is to insert a small piece 

 of lint or tow into its orifice, allowing it to remain in for a few 

 hours), in order to allow the escape of any fluid which might 

 collect in the sac. The bandage is placed so as not to cover 

 the wound. There is no danger to be apprehended from open- 

 ing this bursa. I have done it repeatedly, and always with 

 success ; and sufficient inflammation is excited without injecting 

 iodine or any other irritant. 



Horned cattle, especially milking cows, kept in-doors, are 

 liable to have enormously enlarged knees from distension of 

 these bursse, caused by bruising while lying upon hard floors. 

 They may be opened with safety ; and the best plan of doing so 

 is to insert a seton right through the substance of the swelling, 

 and allow it to remain in for three or four weeks ; the knee to 

 to be protected from further injury by a good thick bed, or by a 

 thick flannel bandage wrapped round it. 



CARPITIS, OR INFLAMMATION OF THE KNEE. 



This cause of lameness was investigated and laid before the 

 profession by Mr. Arthur Cherry (Veterinarian, 1845). He 

 gives a very elaborate account of it, which may be read with 

 advantage ; but in his over-zeal for what seems a pet theory, he 

 has confounded diseases of other parts of the limb with those of 

 the knee. For example, he says that " heat in the foot is some- 

 times felt in carpitis," and that what the old farriers called 

 chest-founder arose from this inflammation of the knee. These 

 statements must not be received wi^^hout great caution, as they 

 are apt to mislead the young practitioner. Mr. Cherry says — 

 " Under the term Carpitis I propose to describe a disease of the 

 knee-joint which, in its commonly existing form, has never, as 

 far as I am aware, been specifically described. 



" The knee-joint itself has been considered to be exempt from 

 disease, unless from the infliction of direct injury ; indeed, so far 

 did the late Professor Coleman carry his opinion on this subject, 

 that he used to assert, in the most positive manner, that the 

 knee was never the seat of lameness. 



