328 CAPPED KNEE. 



the abscess. In dropsical or oedematous affections of the limbs, 

 and rheumatic inflammation of the joints, we may frequently ob- 

 serve the knees to be swollen in front to a considerable extent ; 

 though, perhaps, we should not call such by the name of " capped 

 knees." 



Lameness is not a Consequence of Capped Knee. No 

 pain exists to produce it. The cap of the knee, however, may be 

 swollen to that degree that inconvenience or impediment to the 

 flexion of the knee-joint may arise, altering the gait by the pecu- 

 liarity which it occasions in the lifting and projection of the limb, 

 and so far causing " stiffness," or, if persons will have it so, 

 *' lameness." Indeed, it is possible for inflammation from par- 

 ticular causes — such as violent injury, oppressive work, or mal- 

 treatment — to be set up in the part, and then, as a matter of course, 

 lameness would result. 



Treatment might be said to be hardly called for to so trifling 

 an affair as a capped knee ; and yet, so long as the enlargement con- 

 tinues, scarcely any thing — unless it be a capped hock — disfigures 

 a horse more. Supposing it be but a casual occurrence, a mere 

 accident of the moment, and there be no probability of any re- 

 currence of the cause which has given rise to it, all that need be 

 said about treatment is — " let the swelling alone, and in time it 

 will subside." As with capped hock so with capped knee, the 

 grand consideration is, the removal of the exciting cause. Should 

 it arise from pawing in the stall, let the horse's fore legs be chained 

 together with fetters of the same kind as were recommended in 

 speaking of capped hock ; and should the injury take place in 

 strawyard or paddock, or place of such description, it is most prudent 

 to at once remove the animal. 



Severity or repetition of injury may, however, bring before us 

 for treatment a case of tumour, so great an eyesore from its mag- 

 nitude, that the proprietor is ashamed or unwilling to use the horse 

 with it, notwithstanding the swelling may nowise interfere with 

 action. Now, simple as this case may appear, I would advise the 

 veterinarian not to undertake the treatment of it without warning 

 his employer that capped knee, like capped hock, is apt to prove 



