HYGROMAS—BURSITIS. 251 
ted if there are any, and the vegetations or more or less calcareous pseudo- 
serous membranes are scraped off with the sharp curette. By using cor- 
rosive sublimate or carbolic acid, the radical operation is without danger. 
Curettage of the internal membrane is to be preferred to cauterization, 
actual or potential. The operation is completed by a few stitches of suture, 
an iodoform dressing if possible, or collodion and antiseptic powders. 
Sometimes the walls, fibrous or calcareous, have considerable thick- 
ness. In such a case extirpation may be attempted. If the tumor is 
pedunculated, elastic ligature is the best; if the base is wide, a sharp in- 
strument is to be used: incise the skin, enucleate the mass without 
opening it, or divide in two and remove each half separately. Well-ap- 
plied hemostasis, sutures, and disinfection afterwards may permit the rapid 
union of the edges without suppuration. ‘This is the ordinary treatment 
of old capped elbows rebel to injections and cauterization. 
Before considering hygromas individually, we will mention, once for all, 
the serous collections that may be found in the various species, particularly 
cattle, on the projecting parts of the body, especially the trochanter, ex- 
ternal angle of the ilium, point of the ischium and external face of the 
thigh. Their treatment is that of recent hygromas, a similar one to that of 
traumatic serous effusions. We especially recommend dependent punc- 
ture, drainage and injections of strong antiseptic solutions. 
SPECIAL HYGROMAS. 
L. Hygroma of the Elbow —Capped Elbow. 
The repeated pressure of the heels of the shoe upon the summit of the 
cubitus, in horses that lie down cow-fashion, produce, on the skin and 
subcutaneous tissues, lesions of various kinds which are classed under the 
general name of capped elbow. If the lesion consists in a dropsical con- 
dition of the serous bursa of the elbow, in a true Aygroma it is produced 
in some cases by an acute or chronic inflammation of the skin or of the 
cellular tissue underneath. According to the nature of the alterations, 
capped elbows are edematous, cystic, phlegmonous and indurated. They 
are also divided into o/d and recent, acute and chronic. 
In the sterno-costal decubitus, the body is supported by the sternum, 
the abdomen and a little of one side of the thorax, it being always slightly 
inclined to the right or to the left. The canon and the phalanges, flexed 
upon the knee, come to lie against the forearm, and as the length of these 
two folded parts is apparently the same, the heels of the shoe can press 
upon the elbow. On many animals this is harmless. If the animal lies 
on its right side, for instance, the right foot comes and rests between the 
chest and the elbow on the coresponding axilla; the left is carried suf- 
