S V N O V I A I . MEM B HA N ES. 
261 
be the most ready means of effecting a cure. The disease is 
always most manageable when the skin can be kept entire ; for 
then we have not the dreaded consequences of an open joint to 
contend against, and we have the best chance of escaping com- 
plete anchylosis of the joint; and that having taken place, what 
has our treatment availed when our patient is rendered use- 
less ? 
When anchylosis takes place in the human subject, the person 
may still continue a useful member of society ; but a horse that has 
lost the use of a principal joint can be of no possible utility. 
In certain stages of the malady, however, it is indispensably 
necessary to make an incision, for those very means that we 
have been employing in order to facilitate absorption have rather 
tended to increase the secretion of the fluid around the joint. 
When, also, the disease has been brought to this stage by 
previous vesicatory applications, an incision may be made with 
facility, without the capsular ligament being injured, thus shew- 
ing the beneficial effects of counter-irritation. 
When the disease is allowed to advance, the cartilages and the 
bones themselves become involved, and ulceration of the former 
and caries of the latter are the result. In the most particular case 
that I have seen of this description, the ulceration was not pre- 
ceded by suppuration ; but when the inflammation has arrived 
at this stage, medical treatment will not suffice much ; yet, if any 
remedy was to be applied, I should be inclined to give the pre- 
ference to iodine and diluted muriatic acid, the good effects of 
which I have frequently seen upon diseased bone. 
CASE I. 
A black draught filly, about two years old, spare in condition, 
and apparently of an unhealthy habit, has been housed a few 
days. The pulse is 60 ; the respiration hurried, but the appetite 
good ; the pastern joint of the left hind leg is very much tume- 
fied and indurated ; there is no superficial inflammation ; the 
part is not very painful to the touch; there is no motion what- 
ever in the joint, and the animal cannot set the leg to the ground, 
and lies down a great deal. Administer aloes 3 V, apply a blister, 
and throw a rug over the body. 
3 d day . — The cathartic has operated well : pulse 62, respira- 
tion more tranquil ; appetite good ; she has a little use of t,he leg ; 
tumefaction much softened : a prominent abscess on the inside 
of the leg. This was opened with a lancet, and a copious dis- 
charge of a bloody serous-like fluid escaped. On introducing 
my little finger into the orifice, I found the cavity to extend 
round nearly the whole of the joint. Dress with solution of 
VOL. ix. Mm 
