90 
WOUNDS OF THE ARTICULATIONS. 
deserve a preference in consequence of their activity and the 
facility with which they may be applied. 
M. Saussol has used mustard cataplasms with advantage 
in the treatment of articular wounds of the hock. Instances 
of the use of this agent are, however, but few, and practitioners 
prefer vesicants.* 
The blister most recommended for the healing of articular 
fistulas, is the ordinary Ung. Canthar. Similar effects are 
produced by the tincture of cantharides, liniment of am- 
monia, unguent of the biniodide of mercury, and by other 
vesicants known under different names. 
The application of a vesicant to an articular wound should 
always be had recourse to at the commencement. The blister 
should be spread upon the opening, and also upon the con- 
tiguous parts, and, if possible, all round the articulation. It 
should be repeated the next day, and always without the 
use of a bandage. The animal should be kept quiet, and 
care taken that he does not rub the part affected. The 
vesicant should be allowed to dry, and at the end of a few 
days the desiccation will be complete; the crust will fall, 
and the hair will be soon reproduced. 
We do not pretend to affirm, that vesicants will cure all 
kinds of articular wounds; but they will the greater number, 
especially those of the stifle-joint. In some exceptional 
cases their application has been found insufficient, and it has 
been necessary to have recourse to caustics. 
Caustics . — The agents of this description, which are used in 
the treatment of articular wounds, are the actual cautery, and 
escharotics. 
Actual Cautery . — For a long time English veterinary surgeons 
have preferred this agent to any other. They apply it only 
on the exterior opening, so as to form an eschar which 
opposes the flow of the synovia, and assists cicatrization. De- 
labere Blaine has shown the danger of penetrating the skin 
with the cautery so as to injure the ligamentous struc- 
tures. t 
Several French veterinary surgeons have described the 
good effects resulting from the cautery, and among them may 
be mentioned, MM. Desmoulieres, Renault, Gerard, Lecoq, 
and Feuvrier. For myself, the results which I have seen to 
follow its use have not been so favorable as those obtained by 
vesicants and chemical agents. M. Renault proposes the 
actual cautery as a last resource, and when other means have 
proved insufficient. 
* Saussol, Recueil, 1831, p. 331. 
j- Delabere Blaine, Outlines of the Veterinary Art. 
