TRAUMATIC ARTHRITIS. 537 
’ 
ish or lameness, of an open elbow which had been treated for five 
weeks by blisterings and injections of all kinds. 
Continued irrigation has given a recovery to Trasbot. It was a 
horse which presented at the upper part of the forearm an oval wound 
measuring from five to six centimeters in its transversal diameter. This 
wound, oblique backwards and inwards, was ten or twelve centimeters 
deep, reached to the external side of the elbow joint. During four days 
cleaning and antiputrid injections were made, but the swelling of the 
joint became enormous and the discharge of synovia abundant. Digital 
exploration discovered the rupture of the external lateral ligament. An 
S probe was easily introduced in the articulation. A counter-opening 
was made about twelve centimeters back of the external wound, a drain 
tube introduced into the new tract made and continued irrigation 
started. Ten days after the synovial discharge had stopped, the fever 
subsided and the lameness gone. Hydrotherapy does not always. 
succeed as well: we had two occasions to use it and two failures to 
record. 
When one is called to a recent penetrating wound of the elbow, and 
the local disorders do not impose the immediate condemnation of 
the patient, antisepsy is the treatment to choose. The wound and its 
surroundings shall be disinfected, and the clots of blood, the hair and 
foreign bodies removed; it will be irrigated freely with tepid Van 
Swieten fluid, and covered with collodion coating and a wide wadded 
dressing, held in place by rollers crossed over the withers and in the 
axilla. Instead of this dressing, an application of blisters can be re- 
sorted to. 
If the wound is infected, there is but little chance of recovery. 
Wherever is the seat of the wound, injected fluids cannot penetrate deep 
enough, and disinfection of the joint is impossible. After free incision, 
it is again injections of tepid Van Swieten solution that must be used. 
When, after eight or ten days of treatment, the discharge of synovia is 
still purulent, the whole articulation is swollen and the general symp- 
toms aggravated, the animal ought to be destroyed. 
ITT.—Knee-Joint. 
Traumatic lesions of carpal joints are almost always the result of falls 
on the anterior legs. In front and behind those joints, there are tendons 
provided with special synovial sheaths; the escape of synovia, in wound 
of the knee, is not then a positive sign of the opening of the articular 
synovial. Penetrating wounds of the anterior face of the knee are less 
dangerous than those of the posterior. According to Trasbot, this dif- 
