426 WOUNDS. 
The suffering attendant on the latter class of injuries is increased by 
almost every abrasion forcing grit or dirt into the substance of the cutis. 
This, of course, is generally washed out. The torture accompanying a 
large abraded surface is, therefore, very great; and horses when suffer- 
ing from accidents of such a nature sometimes sink from the irritation 
consequent upon the injury. When the animals survive, the roots of 
the hair too often have been destroyed, and a perpetual blemish is the 
result. 
A punctured wound is always dangerous; the hazard in this, as in 
every species of injury, is greatly increased 
when inflicted on parts liable to any vast 
amount of motion. Thus, punctures occur- 
ring over the stifle-joint too often set our 
best surgery at defiance. The muscles of 
the hind leg contract with every move- 
ment of the body. Added to that, the 
part abounds with fascia. 
The majority of these wounds heal by 
suppuration. Fascia is a substance no pus 
cnhat of Leiiun thie ce «cal penetrate, and which is more easily 
paratively small opening 3. sM% rent than punctured. ‘The exit of the 
secretion, therefore, is opposed in many 
directions, while the ceaseless motion occasions the matter to burrow. 
The sinuses thus produced are by the fascia guided to the stifle-joint; 
and, when once the synovial cavity is polluted by the intrusion of the 
unhealthy pus, all the best efforts of science are useless. 
When a punctured wound occurs, the skin, being elastic, stretches 
before the instrument by which the wound is inflicted. The soft parts 
beneath the skin, not being elastic to the same degree as the integument, 
break down before the penetrating force. They are torn or lacerated; 
for generally the muscles receive a larger injury than would be cal- 
culated from the size of the instrument by which the blow was inflicted. 
The rent flesh must be cast off by a slough—corruption generally at- 
tends that process. Much of the pus secreted cannot find an exit 
through the opening in the skin; a large portion of it is confined 
within the puncture. There it decays, and, being impelled by the 
motion of the limb, readily finds its way in all directions save the 
upward one. 
No judgment approaching to accuracy can be formed at the first sight 
of a punctured wound. The probe may ascertain the depth of the injury, 
hut it cannot tell the extent of damage done to the interior of the body. 
Therefore, whether the hoof is pierced by a nail, or the muscles are lacer- 
DIAGRAM OF A PUNCTURED WOUND. 
The engraving supposes the soft parts 
to have been divided, in order to 
