894 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



front. In six or seven days, should there be a great 

 accumulation of fluid within the bandages, an incision will 

 afford it a way out, and another dressing of the paste, with 

 a similar bandage, applied. The horse is to be kept sus- 

 pended a week after the joint is closed, when the paste is 

 removed, the knee washed, and the usual wound dressing 

 applied. If there is still swelling above the knee, bathe 

 with cooling evaporating lotion, but don't allow it to wet 

 the dressings. A very superior splint, or knee-cap, may be 

 now made by moulding gutta-percha, softened in hot water, 

 to the shape of the knee. 



With respect to concealing the after blemish, no power of 

 earth can make the hair grow on a scar. It is not skin, 

 and it cannot be covered with the appendage only to be 

 seen upon true skin. But the cicatrix will with time 

 become less. Often the wound, which on first healing 

 appears rather large, in the course of three months will be 

 all but imperceptible. Any application of blisters, be they 

 mild or strong, can but increase the blemish it is their 

 intention to remove. Let the scar alone. If you have 

 thrown down a horse, no veterinary surgeon can be sure he 

 shall afterwards stand upon perfect limbs. You must, 

 therefore, take the consequences without complaint, and be 

 grateful that you have, in the eftects of time, some hope 

 left when science has abandoned you. 



Broken knees without Opening of the Synovial Cavity. — 

 Occasionally broken knees prove to be mere skin injury, 

 with slight contusion. Undue and too early exercise may 

 force these into permanent thickening of the part, with 

 injury to the free motion of the joint, whereas an extra 

 rest and fomentation would complete a cure. When, there- 

 fore, a cut has taken place without injury to the cavity of 

 the joint, the wound having been washed, bring the edges 

 of the integument as closely together as possible by strips 

 of adhesive plaster, as already directed ; or, if the wound 

 be extensive, it would be well to sling the horse. A cure 

 by the first intention, or adhesive process, can only be hoped 

 for in this way. If heat and tumefaction come on, use the 

 lotion composed of arnica and water, two ounces of the 

 tincture to a quart ; and, after applying the arnica and 

 water night and day for forty-eight hours, if the skin be 

 broken, exchange the lotion for one composed of chloride 

 of zinc and water ; in this way a cure may often be 



