TENDINOUS RUPTURES. 295 
aspect, the indurations and the sensibility diminish, the pain subside, the 
rest of the leg be better, and the fistule close. But tendinous quittor is 
obstinate. Sometimes the treatment demands six weeks or two months. 
For lesions of the bands of the plantar cushion, or the bands of in- 
sertion of the strengthening aponeurosis of the perforans, or those of the 
metacarpo phalangeal sheath, the directions are the same. 
When once recovery is brought about, generally the organs of the region 
are united by inflammatory induration ; when the quittor has involved the 
flexors, the great sesamoid sheath has disappeared, the tendons are ankylosed 
and their action greatly hindered. With exercise, baths and massage, 
these disorders may gradually subside. In a number of cases, when the 
acute inflammatory phenomena have subsided, cauterization with deep 
points or with needles made on the diseased part will hasten the absorp- 
tion of the induration. If the remaining lesions are such that lameness is 
persistent, median or sciatic neurotomy is to be prescribed. 
But the termination is not always so good. Sometimes during the 
disease serious accidents may occur. The diseased leg being unable to 
carry its part of the weight of the body, its congener, overloaded, is ex- 
posed to laminitis. With tendinous necrosis, suppurative synovitis, bony 
necrosis and arthritis may make their appearance. A time arrives when, 
emaciated and exhausted by pain, the patient remains continually lying 
down, dry gangrene of the skin occurs in patches, and the animal has 
to be destroyed. Also, in cases of purulent infiltrations, pyohzemic symp- 
toms manifest themselves and soon carry off the poor suffering beast. 
IV. 
TENDINOUS RUPTURES (BREAKINGS). 
Tendinous ruptures, partial or total, are generally the result of violent 
muscular efforts. At times there is a special predisposition or an altera- 
tion of the tendinous tissue which promotes the rupture: thus are ex- 
plained the facts of multiple ruptures observed in a single subject. 
Rheumatism, simple, chronic, or suppurative tenositis and the navicular 
disease seem to be the most frequent causes of the softening of tendons. 
Moller and several other authors have reported cases in horses of ruptures of 
the four perforans tendons. To Braiier is due the following curious record : 
In a horse suffering from anasarca and kept in absolute quiet for a cer- 
tain length of time, the flexor tendons of the phalanges had become so 
elongated that the fetlocks rested almost on the ground ; the animal walked 
like a plantigrade; the tendons and peri-tendinous tissues were neither 
tumefied nor painful; after four months the tendons had returned to 
their original dimensions, the legs recovered their normal standing and the 
horse was able to return to its work. Numerous facts, however, show 
