670 
OPENED JOINT SUCCESSFULLY TREATED. 
of a small piece of wood flattened at the top, plastered it, as it were, 
all over the part, left the wound uncovered, and ordered the groom to 
repeat this several times during the day. The other wounds do- 
ing well. 
14 th . — Medicine operating freely — patient pretty easy. From 
repeated application of the powder it had formed a mass with the 
synovia as it escaped : 1 removed a portion of this carefully, and 
found the orifice leading to the joint almost plugged with coagula. 
Ordered dressings as before. 
1 5th . — Knee swollen, but the discharge very little indeed. 
At this stage of the proceedings the owner said he thought (as I 
had previously told him it would be some time, if the case pro- 
gressed favourably, before the mare would be fit for service, and 
that there would be expense and trouble attending it, and from her 
not being at the best a very valuable animal) it would be as well to 
have her destroyed ; at all events, he said, I could leave some of the 
dressing, and his groom could apply it if necessary, and he would 
see how she was in a few days. 
I saw no more of my patient until the 21st, when I was again 
sent for. I found the poor animal in a sad plight : she was stand- 
ing with her head resting upon the manger — the breathing much 
accelerated — appetite lost — and altogether expressing great pain : 
the knee and leg were enormously swollen, and, from neglect, the 
granulations had grown profusely, and much above the level of the 
other parts ; so much so, that I removed several portions with my 
scalpel. There was no discharge of synovia, nor had there been, as 
I was informed, but very little indeed since I last saw her, and 
that on the same day. I felt for the most prominent parts of the 
swelling about the knee, wherein I plunged my lancet, which was 
followed by the flow of at least three quarts of blood, which ap- 
peared to relieve her: I inserted a seton in the pectoral region, and 
fomented the parts. On my leaving, ordered it to be repeated. 
The next day she was very much freed from pain; she had lain 
down during the night, and had eaten a bran mash very heartily; 
the leg was, however, swinging. Before I left I again punctured 
the swelling, and inserted two or three small setons around, about 
the knee. From this time she gradually got better, requiring little 
to be done more than following up the fomentations, and the occa- 
sional use of an escharotic lotion to the granulations. 
On the 31st she could walk out of the stable, pressing firmly on 
the foot of the diseased leg, the owner having sold her to a farmer, 
a client of mine. She walked to his place on the 7th of November, 
a distance of four miles. She is, up to this date, at grass, with 
but some little enlargement left about the joint; cicatrization of the 
wounds also progressing favourably. 
