388 The l^'armer's Veterinary Adviser. 



blood and build tliem up into tlie liard bony texture, li 

 these nuclei are injured their powers of assimilation are 

 modified, their numbers are multiphed, and they become 

 surrounded by an excess of semi-fluid matter (lympli) 

 with, it may be, one of the following results : — 1st, the 

 softening of the bone and the removal of its earthy salts, 

 until it can be cut with a knife or gives way under the 

 weight of the animal: — 2d, the transformation of the 

 lymph into pus on the surface of the bone or in its interior, 

 where it may remain imprisoned for an indefinite length 

 of time : — 3d, the hardening of a hmited amount of lymph 

 in the cehs or inter-spaces of the bone, compressing the 

 blood-vessels, Hmitiug the supply of blood and favoring 

 ulceration or even death of the part : — ith, from the above 

 cause, or from a perversion of the plastic or assimilating 

 powers of the nuclei, ulceration sets in on the surface 

 or in the interior of the bone, and the bony matter is 

 steadily removed to be replaced by an irregular excavation 

 or a cavity fiJled by a bloody ichor: — 5th, the swelling 

 may completely close the blood-vessels of the bone or the 

 inflammation may cause coagulation of the blood within 

 them throughout a considerable portion, which accord- 

 ingly dies, and has to be removed as a foreign body : — 

 6th, short of those extreme conditions and more com- 

 monly, the exudation leads to a partial softening and 

 general swelling of the inflamed part, and this becoming 

 consolidated and hardened there is a material increase of 

 size : — 7th, and by far the most frequently, the inflamma- 

 tion affects the superficial layer of bone and its investing 

 fibrous membrane, and the exudation, taking place be- 

 tween these, is soon consolidated into a layer or tumor of 

 bone on the surface : — 8th, any exudation on the outer 

 side of the fibrous covering is also liable to be calcified 

 and to form hard tumors, but these do not acquii'e the 

 true bony texture like that formed between the membrane 

 and the bone. 



General Symptoms. In the sUghtest forms of inflammar 



