LAMENESS. 
487 
refrigerant lotion, used with a linen bandage : water, cold from 
the pump, or made cold by ice, is in general to be preferred to 
warm water; and the bandage made use of should be one of 
proper length and breadth, and of suitable material. Those we 
use are two yards in length, three-and-a-half inches in breadth, 
and made of Russia duck. Pains also should be taken in the 
application of the bandage. Every stable-boy thinks he can put on 
a bandage. There is a great deal of difference, however, in simply 
rolling a bandage round a horse’s leg as a man would roll a hay- 
band round it, and applying one in a proper manner. 
As soon as all signs of inflammation have departed, should 
lameness continue, the best of all applications is a blister upon the 
joint : indeed, in cases wherein the blister is not, or cannot be, 
applied immediately upon the diseased joint, but is to be put on 
at a distance from it, as in foot-joint lameness, it may be had 
recourse to prior to the cessation of the inflammation, nay, early 
in the complaint, so long as a good blood-letting or two has had 
the precedence. A blister we have much predilection for in 
these and many other cases is the acetum cantharidum : it can be 
neatly and cleanly applied with a paint brush, and being, with 
warm water, four-and-twenty hours afterwards, sponged off, the 
sponging from day to day being continued, providing care be 
taken little or no loss of hair will be sustained. Liniments, such 
as the ammonia, turpentine, &c., are by some practitioners em- 
ployed: for our own part, we have not seen such benefit derived 
from their use as from that of the sweating blister. Indeed, when 
the case is of long standing, or one of relapse, nothing short of a 
full-strength blister need be applied. 
One part, and that the most essential, nay, indispensable part of 
the treatment, still calls for mention, and that is, the repose of the 
affected limb; and the only way in which to such a patient as a 
horse we can secure this is, to put him into a state of absolute 
rest ; to the carrying of which most desirable object into effect, a 
stall is to be preferred to a loose box. 
Further ; all we have to say is, that, in the treatment of joint 
lamenesses, both the owner of the lame horse, and the veterinary 
practitioner in attendance upon him, ought to be in possession of 
the virtue yclept patience, they oftentimes turning out protracted 
and troublesome cases; and, moreover, such cases as will to a 
certainty relapse into their former state of lameness, should the 
patient be taken too soon after convalescence to work, or even to 
exercise : therefore, let his state of repose be rather prolonged than 
abridged ; for, should relapse be brought on, the second course of 
treatment can hardly be expected to prove so effectual, or at all 
events so effectual within a given space of time, as the first 
turned out. 
