412 OPEN SYNOVIAL CAVITIES. 
No caustics of any kind are imperative or even necessary. The two 
lotions, if used with proper zeal, will accomplish all that can be desired. 
The arnica lotion should, however, be in all cases applied night and day 
during the early stage; the chloride of zine lotion ought to be employed 
only during the time man is usually out of bed. 
The wound, in ordinary cases, should not be washed or touched. 
Should proud flesh start up, such is positive proof of the negligence 
of the groom, whose duty it was to apply the chloride of zine lotion. 
If the mode of treatment here laid down be strictly pursued, the author 
can with confidence promise a satisfactory and a speedy cure. To 
enforce the value of the measures recommended, the portraits of two 
knees, which were subjected to the opposite processes, have been pre- 
sented. Both were copied from living subjects in the sixth week after 
the misfortune had occurred. 
OPEN SYNOVIAL CAVITIES. 
The primary cause of these fearful accidents is the pride of mankind; 
gentility is always striving to impose upon credulity. It loves to be 
mistaken for something better than it really is. After all, this vice of 
society is nothing more than the child’s game of “ Lords and Ladies,” 
played by grown-up persons. A horse having a naturally defective neck 
is obtained; no barbarity is too abhorrent to repress the hope of mak- 
ing people believe the steed thus deformed is a creature of extremest 
value. The animal, if ridden, has the chin pulled in close to the neck; 
if driven, the free carriage of the body is prevented by the cruel bear- 
ing-rein. The horse progresses in agony, while gentility sits smiling at 
the result of its artifice. The horse cannot see the ground before it, 
because of the constraint imposed upon the head; it cannot fix atten- 
tion upon its duty, because of the agony which the cunning of gentility 
inflicts upon the lips. The pace is always rapid; the action is high as 
in the case of blindness; and the animal generally comes to the earth with 
violence. The skin upon the knees is divided, and the structures beneath 
are penetrated. One or more synovial sheaths are opened, while the 
cavities formed by the junction of the separate bones may be lacerated. 
Sheath or joint may not be immediately opened by the fall, but either 
may have their integrity destroyed through the slough induced hy the 
contusion consequent upon a broken knee. Moreover, various acci- 
dents will occasionally happen—misfortune is of infinite variety. The 
synovial burse, sheaths, or cavities of the hind legs are occasionally 
punctured by the quadruped kicking violently while in harness. The 
capsule, embracing the tendon of the flexor brachii upon the point of 
