348 



grees, as we bave snggestetl, or more freely aud vigorously witli a view 

 to more immediate effects, which, however, will also be more sujjerficial. 

 The use of the firing iron applied deeply with fine points is then to bo 

 strongly recommended, to be followed by blisters and various liniments. 

 This course may generally be relied on as quite sure to be followed by 

 satisfactory results. 



While the treatment is in progress it will of course be necessary to 

 secure the animal in such a manner that a recurrence of the injury will 

 be impossible from similar causes to those which were previously 

 responsible. 



Capped hoclc. — A bad habit prevails among some horses of rubbing 

 or striking the partitions of their stalls with their hocks, with the re- 

 sult of an injury which shows itself on the upper point of that bone, 

 the summit of the os calcis. From its analogy to the condition of 

 capped elbow the designation of capped hock has been applied to 

 this condition. 



A capped hock is therefore but the development of a bruise at the 

 point of the hock, which if many times repeated may excite an inflam- 

 matory iirocess, with all its usual external symi)tomsof swelling, heat, 

 soreness, and the rest of the uow familiar phenomena. The swelling is 

 at first diffused, extending more or lesson the exterior part of the hock, 

 and in a few instances running up along the tendons and muscles of 

 the back of the shank. Soon, however, unless the irritating causes 

 are continued and repeated, the oedema diminishes, and becoming more 

 defined in its external outlines, leaves the hock capped with a hygroma. 

 The hygroma, at the very beginning of the trouble, contains a bloody 

 serosity which soon becomes strictly serum, but through the influence 

 of an acute inflammatory action is liable to undergo a metamorphosis 

 which converts it into the product of the suppurative process. 



The external appearance ought to be sufficient to determine the diag- 

 nosis, but there are a few signs which may contribute toward a nicer 

 identification of the lesion. The capped hock, whether under the ap- 

 pearance of an acute cedematous swelling, or as a sero-bloody collection, 

 or as a simple serous cyst, does not give rise to any remarkable local 

 manifestation other than such as have already passed under our survey 

 in considering similar cases, nor will it be likely to interfere with the 

 functions which belong to the member in question, unless it assumes 

 very large dimensions and on each side of the tendons, as well as on the 

 summit of the bone. But if the inflammation is quite high, if suppura- 

 tion is developing, if there is a true abscess, or — and this is a common 

 complication— especially when the kicking or rubbing of the animal is 

 frequently recurring, then, besides the local trouble of the cyst or of 

 the abscess, the bones become diseased and the periosteum inflamed ; 

 perhaps the superior ends of the bone and its fibrocartilage become 

 affected, and a simple lesion or bruise, whatever it may have been, 

 becomes complicated with periostitis and ostitis,, aud is naturally accom- 



