524 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS, 
wadded dressing. It is important to have an immobilization of the: 
joint as complete as possible. Every one knows how difficult it is 
sometimes to obtain the regular cicatrization of wounds situated at the 
fold of the hock or that of the knee. Absolute rest, enveloping of the 
leg from the foot to above the lesion with wadding, dressing with splints, 
slings, are very advantageous means. 
Large cicatrices on a level with an articulation interfere with their 
movements, hence the indication to reduce to the minimum the size of 
wounds which may leave such blemishes, by sutures and properly ap- 
plied dressings. 
Cicatricial indurations, so frequent in front of the knee, stiffen the 
‘leg, render the footing less solid and predispose to new falls. The 
therapeutics of broken knees in horses must benefit by modern discoveries. 
Instead of the vulgar healers, careful disinfection and antiseptic dressings. 
must be used. 
IT. Penetrating Wounds. 
Penetrating wounds of joints and traumatic arthritis shall be con- 
sidered separately. Not only is the opening of an articular synovial 
not necessarily followed by its inflammation, but, thanks to antisepsy, 
it can be avoided if interference is applied in time and _ properly. 
Serous membranes, like all other tissues, repair quickly in the center of 
wounds, providing they are protected from infection. The excessive 
severity of articular wounds is indeed not due to the lesion of the 
aponeurosis and tendons (Paré), nor to the resistance of the tissues to- 
the inflammatory swelling (Brasdor, Bichat, Larrey), nor to the action 
of the exudate upon the synovial and the cartilages (David) ; it depends. 
entirely on the inoculation of the wound, the infection of the synovial. 
Every day we see in horses, as well as other animals, the punctures of 
synovials, made aseptically with fine trocars, cicatrize rapidly by first 
intention. _Here again, without contamination, no complication; with- 
out germs, no suppuration. 
Sometimes the infection of the synovial is primitive, and results from: 
the direct introduction of the injuring agent in the interior of the arti- 
cular cavity ; at others, it is secondary, consecutive to the suppuration 
or-necrotic inflammation of the para-articular tissues. In this last case,. 
the prognosis is most serious, as, ordinarily, when synovia escapes out- 
side, the serous is already deeply altered. 
At the onset, the symptoms are little accused; a wide or a narrow 
wound, allowing the escape of synovia, exists on one of the faces of the 
joint, locomotion remains regular, work can be kept up. But. the in-. 
