2-12 THE MODERN HOUSE DOCTOR. 



In the later stages the application of acetate of cantharides 

 may be persisted in. If the ulcerations are very superficial, not 

 involving the joint, but merely confined to the heads of the bones, 

 they can be detected by manipulation, and we may entertain some 

 hope of restoring the animal to some degree of usefulness; 

 whereas, in the former disease, our best efforts and hopes are 

 often met by failure and disappointment. 



Lameness from Tumor on the Elbow. — An encysted tumor may 

 make its appearance just below the elbow, small at first, but grad- 

 ually enlarging to about the size of a man's double fist : some per- 

 sons are in the habit of excising them. We saw a case, a few 

 months ago, in which the tumor, including the integument, had 

 been. sliced off, leaving a most awful gaping wound, which was 

 left to heal by the slow process of granulation. Such an opera- 

 tion argues but very little on the score of skill or humanity, and 

 is more indicative of the age of barbarity than that of reason. 

 There are chronic cases occasionally brought under the surgeon's 

 notice, in which an operation becomes unavoidable ; and that is 

 when the tumor has degenerated into a dense fibrous mass, and 

 interferes with the action of the limb : ordinary lameness, how- 

 ever, is not an accompanying symptom, for many horses can be 

 found in this city with medium-sized tumors that are never known 

 to take a lame step. These tumors ultimately become indolent, 

 neither inflamed nor painful, and finally degenerate into a fibrous 

 mass, which may be nothing more than an eyesore. 



Cause of Tumors. — They may arise, like tumors in any 

 other part of the body, from bruise or accident, and they some- 

 times occur without any visible cause ; we strongly suspect that 

 the effused fluid comes from the parts above, — articulatory sur- 

 faces of the shoulder, — at this point the common integument being 

 loose, forms a sort of sac, — a receptacle for the accumulation of 

 such fluid, — and it ultimately becomes enveloped with a sac of 

 fibrin formed out of its own deposits. Some persons have sup- 

 posed that these tumors are enlarged bursas : if that were the case, 

 they would take on extensive inflammatory action when opened, 

 as bursal sacs invariably do : on the contrary, they are punc- 

 tured, setoned, and even excised, and seldom, if ever, any high 

 grade of inflammatory action results ; so that they cannot be the 



