350 liUKEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



and reducing its dimensions l)y pressure and other methods. The 

 medieaments most to be trusted are blisters of canthurides and frictions 

 with ointments of iodine, or, preferably. })iniodide of mercury. Mer- 

 curial agents alone, by their therapeutic properties or b}' means of the 

 artificial bandages which they furnish ))}- tlicir incrustations when their 

 vesicator}' effects are exhausted, will give good results in some instances 

 b}' a single application, and often bj' repeated applications. The use 

 of the firing iron must, however, be frequently resorted to, either to 

 remove the lameness or to stimulate the absorption. We believe that 

 its early a|)plication ought to be resorted to in preference to waiting 

 until the exudation is firmly organized. Firing in dull points or in 

 lines will prove as beneficial in curb as in an}' other disease of a similar 

 nature 



LACEIt.VTEB TENDONS. 



This form of injurv, whether of a simple or of a compound character, 

 mux become a lesion of a very serious nature, and will usually require 

 long and careful treatment, which may yet prove unavailing in conse- 

 quence either of the intrinsically fatal character of the wound itself or 

 the complications which have rendered it incurable. 



Cause. — Like all similar injuries, these are the result of traumatic 

 violence, such as contact with objects both blunt and sharp; a curb- 

 stone in the city; in the countr}-, a tree stump or a fence, especially 

 one of wire. It may easilj" occur to a runawaj' horse when he is 

 "whipped"- with fragments of harness or "flogged" by fragments of 

 splintered shafts ''thrashing" his legs, or bj^ the contact of his legs 

 with the wagon he has overturned and shattered with his heels while 

 disengaging himself from its wreck. 



Symptoms. — It is not always necessary that the skin should be 

 involved in this form of injury. On the contrary, the tegument is 

 frequently left entirely intact, especially when the injury follows infec- 

 tious diseases or occurs during light exercise after long periods of rest 

 in the stable. Yet, again, the skin may be cut through and the ten- 

 dons nearl}^ severed. A point a little above the fetlock is usually the 

 seat of the injury. But irrespective of this, and whether the skin is 

 or is not implicated, the symptoms ver}^ much resemble those of a 

 fracture. There is excessive mobility, at least more than in a normal 

 state, with more or less inability to carry weight. There ma}' be 

 swelling of the parts, and on passing the hands carefull}^ along the 

 tendon to the point of division the stumps of the divided structure will 

 be felt more or less separated, perhaps wholly divided. The position 

 of the animal while at rest and standing is peculiar and characteristic. 

 While the heels are well placed on the ground, the toe is correspond- 

 ingly elevated, with a tendency to turn up — a form of breaking down 

 which was described when speaking of the fracture of the sesa- 

 moids. Carrying weight is done onh' with considerable difficulty, but 



