OPENED KNEE AND OTHER JOINTS. 219 



to ascertain that point, although a fluid may be escaping looking more 

 like synovia than pus. 



" The treatment here recommended is strictly mechanical, as far as re- 

 lates to closing the joint : it consists in a surgical operation, conducted on 

 the same principle as the setting of a fractured bone ; and I have but little 

 recourse to medicine, from a firm conviction that !N"ature's restorative 

 powers are fully adequate to the task. 



" The swollen parts above and below the bandage may be rubbed two or 

 three times a day with some discutient evaporating lotion, taking especial 

 care that the part above the compress may not be left so wet as for the 

 lotion to descend and trickle under the bandage. 



" However well the case may go on, I usually confine the horse to the 

 sling until I am satisfied that the joint has remained closed about a week. 

 He may then be turned loose in a box for a few hours every day, but must 

 return to his sling at night, until the joint appears to have regained 

 sufficient strength. The original compress may now be cut ofi*; and the 

 limb should be lathered with warm bran water, soap, and flannel, every 

 day, from elbow to hoof. The wound dressed with a plaster of digestive 

 or mild tincture, and a single six -yard calico roller continued with only 

 comfortable pressure. 



" The granulations which may rise above the level of the skin will, of 

 course, require to be subdued by the usual means ; and when the wound 

 has completely healed, the knee may or may not require a common blister. 



" I deem it requisite to observe, that some cases of opened knee-joints 

 are so appalling, not only from the magnitude of the external wound, but 

 likewise from the aperture in the capsular ligament being equally exten- 

 sive, that if I were called in, even at the moment of the accident, I might 

 despair of success by this or any other mode of treatment. But the case 

 in which I least hesitate to condemn the unfortunate subject, is the 

 opened joint, accompanied with a complete division of both the extensor 

 tendons, the animal being thereby deprived of the power of extending 

 his foot ; and such a complicated case is not an uncommon occurrence." 



Another proposed Plan of Treatment. — Mr. Dawson, 

 V.S,, London, has compounded a dressing for opened joints, 

 which he has used with such success as makes him " san- 

 guine of effecting a cure in cases where he considered before 

 a cure almost impossible." 



Mr. Dawson's procedure is as follows : — after remarking that the means 

 ordinarily employed are "those which promote and keep up inflammation," 

 he says, " it is my uniform practice to remove by scalpel every part, 

 whether sinew, ligament, skin, or what not, that Nature herself would 



