50 ULCERATIVE DISEASE OF JOINTS. 



in what stage or form ; what is the probable nature of the ulcer- 

 ative disease ; to what extent it has proceeded ; whether the case 

 be a first, second, or third attack ; what amount or kind of work 

 the horse has been doing, his age, &c. Inflammation will always 

 be best met by abstractions of blood as nearly topical as they can 

 be practised, and blood-letting is rendered doubly effective in those 

 joint'Cases when it is followed up by sharp blistering over the 

 entire surface of the joint, or as near thereto as is possible. Rest 

 — absolute rest — is an adjunct all but indispensable to the medical 

 treatment; and, in general, great and permanent benefit in the end 

 is conferred by turning the horse out into a strawyard with a soft 

 and mucky bottom : cold, increased by wet, being a great restora- 

 tive to a joint rendered lax and weak by long-standing disease. 



By way of appendage to the subject of "ULCERATIVE DISEASE 

 OF Joints," we would say a few words in explanation of certain 

 appearances which there is, we believe, little doubt, have on more 

 than one occasion been set down to the account of ulceration. It 

 cannot fail to have struck any person in the habit of dissecting 

 joints, that frequently excavations are seen in the articular carti- 

 lages, as though portions of them had been chiselled out, and that 

 such appearances, simulating ulceration, are met with quite as 

 frequently in sound joints as in unsound ones. The hock joint, 

 more than any other, is notorious for presenting such excavations : 

 in it they occur in these situations : — one of tolerabl)' large size 

 in the middle of the groove running between the condyles of the 

 astragalus ; another somewhat less upon the opposing surface of 

 the middle projection of the tibia moving in this groove ; and a 

 third, still less in dimensions, is often to be found at the anterior 

 extremity of the said groove of the astragalus. These excavations 

 are distinguishable from caries or ulceration of the cartilage — 

 First, by the absence of all signs of inflammation ; — by being, on 

 the contrary, found in joints displaying every aspect of health. 

 Secondly, by their surfaces, instead of having an asperous feel, 

 giving the finger, as it passes over them, the sensation of (though 

 the surface may feel uneven) having had all its asperities rubbed 

 off or worn down by friction. Thirdly, the cartilage or bone con- 

 stituting the floor of these pits or hollows is found to have acquired 



