546 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS, 
vantageous only when the inflammatory phenomena are moderate or 
have already subsided. 
If the synovial dropsy is very abundant, puncture of the joint 
must be made. On the most prominent point of the tumefaction, the: 
skin is shaved, soaped and washed with alcohol or Van Swieten. The 
trocar and hands of the operator should be carefully disinfected. The: 
extracted fluid is sometimes clear, at others a little fibrinous, now red- 
dish or already cloudy and on the road to suppuration. Inthis last case,. 
the washing of the serous may prevent suppurative arthritis. With an. 
aseptic syringe, or, better, with Dieulafoy or Potain aspirator, an injection 
is made in the synovial, with a solution of sublimate 1 p. 1000 or phenic 
acid 3-5 p. 100; this is afterwards drawn out; it is renewed until the: 
fluid that comes out is limpid, and free from the clots that soiled the first. 
injections. The washing finished, the woundis closed with collodion and. 
the region covered with a wadded dressing. Thus the joint is purified 
as much as possible. But the result is not always favorable ; when al- 
ready pyogenous microbes brought by the circulation to the joint, have: 
begun their depredations, often the joint becomes purulent, and the pus. 
makes its way outside, necrosing the peri-articular tissues. The treat- 
ment then must be that of traumatic arthritis. 
Closed arthritis, not complicated, leaves often after itself a joint stiff,. 
sore, impotent, with a certain degree of hydarthrosis. Hot effusions, 
massage, compression, blistering and firing are the means to be resorted 
to. After a sufficient rest, work can be resumed gradually. At times. 
the chronic form is complicated with periostosis and false ankylosis. 
(See Arthritis Deformans and Ankylosis.) When these lesions exist in 
the lower joints of extremities (knee, fetlock, phalangeal articulations) 
radial or tibial neurotomies are indicated. Several] horses suffering with. 
chronic arthritis of the knee were neurotomized by Moller and did work. 
in trotting afterwards. 
VII. 
INFECTIOUS ARTHRITIS. 
In animals, besides traumatic and essential closed arthritis, numerous. 
other articular inflammations exist, whose pathogeny, for some at least, 
is yet unknown. They are not due, like the former, to external violence, 
sprains, action of mechanical, physical or chemical agents; all seem to- 
‘constitute manifestations or epiphenomena of general or infectious- 
diseases. 
We will only name the g/anderous arthritis, so frequently observed in. 
