WOUNDS OF THE ARTICULATIONS. 89 
more general. Veterinary surgeons may claim the priority 
of their use, as these remedies are now adopted in human 
surgery. 
It is difficult to decide who was the first person to re- 
commend the application of a vesicant to wounds of a given 
size, and especially to those which affect the synovial tissues. 
For a long time veterinary surgeons in the army have em- 
ployed this remedy. The method was promulgated by tradi- 
tion, before being noticed in the scientific journals, and which 
was first due by M. E. Tisserant. This mode of treatment 
has now become quite common.* 
Many theories can be given in explanation of the modus 
operandi of vesicants in articular wounds. Spoliative — produces 
exudation and secretion of pus at the expense of the wound, 
and evacuates the sero-plastic products which would have 
furnished the elements of inflammation in the substance of 
the tissues. Antiphlogistic — prevents phlegmon of the mem- 
branes of the diseased articulation. Substitutive — developes 
superficial inflammation, which is substituted for that which in- 
vades or menaces the deeper-seated parts. Compressive — causes 
fulness of the tissues, and brings the edges of the lesion in 
apposition ; under this influence occlusion may become com- 
plete, and the synovia cease to flow. Relaxative — diminishes 
the tumefaction of the soft parts, rather than augments it. 
Cicatrisive — renders the cure more rapid by producing granula- 
tions which have a greater tendency to unite than those 
existing in ordinary cases. 
We may also add, that the application of a vesicant to a 
joint need not cause any fear ot reaction, or of metastasis, 
even on the urinary organs. It has besides the advantage of 
hastening resolution in contused wounds, and of limiting the 
extension of spacelus. There is one objection that may be 
made to this agent ; namely, that it occasionally removes the 
surface of the dermis as well as the cuticle, and thus causes 
the hair to fall, and which may not be reproduced, or, if so, 
be of a different colour. We may reply to this objection by 
stating that the hair generally grows again after the use of a 
vesicant upon a joint, because the integument is thick here, 
and is rarely so deeply affected as to cause a permanent de- 
pilation ; and even were it otherwise, the absence of hair 
would not be as serious a cause of depreciation, as if depila- 
tion had been produced on the sides of the chest or other 
parts. 
Any kind of rubefacient or vesicant may effect a successful 
termination of articular wounds, and such remedies especially 
* E. Tisserant, Journal des Veterinaires du Midi, 1845, p. 151. 
xxviii. 12 
