512 THE FARM DOCTOR. 



may be thrown in and expressed again after three minutes, the 

 part being afterward covered with wet bandages. 



For suppuration a simple subcutaneous bursa may be laid 

 freely open and allowed to heal by granulation, or a thread 

 may be drawn through the cavity and the pus drawn off, while 

 cooling lotions are applied to the surface. 



DISEASES OF MUSCLES. 

 RUPTURE OF MUSCLES. 



The red flesh is rarely torn in life and never by voluntary 

 contraction. Though torn across with ease after death it will 

 resist much more during life than the white fibrous cord by 

 which it is attached to the bones. Muscles are usually torn by 

 some extreme involuntary contraction, as in recovering from a 

 wrong step or slip, or in the extreme contractions of lock-jaw. 

 Rupture is recognised by the sudden pain and inability to use 

 the muscle, and, if it is superficial, by tenderness, by a depression 

 in the seat of the tear, and a bulging of the muscle above and 

 below it. Later, the depression may be filled by a soft com- 

 pressible clot 



Treatment consists in the approximation of the divided ends 

 by such a position as will relax the muscle, and by a tight 

 bandage from the foot up if it be in a limb. 



INFLAMMATION OF MUSCLE. 



This is usually the result of rheumatism, but may arise from 

 continued use or from local injury. It is manifested by swelling 

 and extreme tenderness of the muscle in question, with loss of 

 contractile power. If rheumatic it has the further characteristic 

 of shifting from place to place. It may result in abscess, or 

 thickening of the fibrous investing membrane, or in calcareous, 

 granular, or fatty degeneration. It must be treated by rest, with 

 soothing local treatment like any ordinary inflammation, and 



