THE DISEASES OF JOINTS. 33 



The inspection after death of joints from disease of which 

 horses during life have been known for a length of time to have 

 gone lame, has brought to view worm-eaten like excavations in 

 those parts of the articular surfaces of the bones which appear to 

 have undergone the greatest compression, and to have been the 

 most likely to have sustained injury from concussion or contusion. 

 In the hock joint such ragged excavations have been discovered 

 upon the central or prominent part of the convexity of the astra- 

 galus, and upon the opponent surface of the concavity of the tibia: 

 in the diseased navicular joint the same has appeared upon the 

 convexity encircling the body of the navicular bone, and upon the 

 correspondent concave part of the flexor tendon ; and so in other 

 joints. 



The Treatment joint lamenesses require must be somewhat 

 varied according to the particular joint affected, and to the cir- 

 cumstances of the individual case : there are, however, certain 

 general principles of therapeutics applicable to all such cases, and 

 it is with them our business at present lies. Inflammation being 

 commonly detectible, though that is oftener sub-acute or chronic in 

 its kind than acute, our treatment must in general, at the begin- 

 ning, be of an antiphlogistic or cooling description. Blood-letting, 

 topical when such can be practised, is not to be dispensed with 

 except in slight cases, and in them even the neglect of it often- 

 times turns out matter of regret. Bleeding from the toe, in all 

 lamenesses arising from disease of any of the lower joints, is an 

 excellent practice. The pastern veins are not so much worth 

 notice, from the inconsiderable quantity of blood they too often 

 emit, and from the time they are apt to take in emitting it; but 

 the plat and femoral veins may, in case of lameness in any of the 

 upper joints, often be opened with great advantage. A brisk 

 purge — such a one as will take good effect without the aid oF 

 exercise — is highly recommendable ; it will clear out the bowels, 

 set the system in better order, and at the same time have some 

 effect in abating the inflammation in the joint. As an application 

 to the inflamed joint, nothing is so good, T believe, as some cold or 

 refrigerant lotion, used with a linen bandage : water, cold from 

 the pump, or made cold by ice, is in general to be preferred to 



VOL IV. F 



