BROKEN KNEES. 405 
is often aggravated by the nature of the road on which the animal is 
traveling. A fall upon a very rough surface might even destroy a por- 
tion of the skin, and deprive more or less of the cellular tissue of vitality. 
BROKEN KNEES OF VARIOUS DEGREES OF INTENSITY. 
The hair ruffled and the The hair removed and the The skin destroyed and the 
cuticle scratched. true skin exposed, cellular tissue injured. 
Accompanying such accidents there is generally some amount of con- 
tusion. When it falls, the horse is in motion, and the impetus lends 
violence to the descent. Probably the animal is being ridden when it 
comes to the ground. The weight of the blow is not only then pro- 
portioned to the heavy body of the horse and the rate at which it is 
progressing, but its effect is augmented by the load upon its back. These 
considerations render broken knees the proper dread of every horse 
proprietor. An animal may stumble and come down which, prior to the 
mishap, would have been sold cheap for several hundreds. It may be 
raised from the ground with almost all its worth demolished. The nature 
of the hurt is not, however, always shown at first. The chief danger, 
in broken knees, lies in the accompanying contusion. The horse which 
rises without a hair ruffled, but which fell with violence, is always, with 
informed persons, a cause of considerable anxiety. Contusion is to be 
more dreaded in its consequences than is the largest wound when devoid 
of anything approaching to a bruise. 
The reason why contusion is thus gravely regarded is because, when 
that occurs in severity, the vitality of all the coverings to the knee is 
destroyed, and, in very bad cases, even the bones are materially injured. 
All dead parts must be cast from a living body; and no man can pred- 
icate how deep may be the injury, or how important may be the structures 
which shall be opened, when the slough takes place. 
Proprietors of horses thus injured are commonly very earnest in their 
solicitations for a professional opinion as to the extent and probable 
consequences of the accident. No certain judgment can, however, be 
pronounced, nor should one be given. Any surgical calculation, not- 
withstanding it may be most prudently qualified, is apt to be miscon- 
strued by the anxiety of distress. The most guarded hint at a proba- 
