CASES OF OPEN JOINT. 
133 
careful what quantity I extracted, and not go to work with a ruth¬ 
less hand, undermining the constitution, but steadily watching the 
pulse, as ably advised by Mr. Simonds. 
In conclusion, I do think that it is imperative upon the profes¬ 
sion, especially at the present day, whenever an opportunity occurs 
to an individual, well to examine the cause and symptoms, and 
boldly and fearlessly to adapt his treatment accordingly, and by 
so doing avoid a stain which I almost consider too frequently 
attaches to us on account of our treating the disease in so empirical 
a way. Finally, I do say, that we are not perfectly acquainted with 
the cause or nature of the disease or its treatment, but I do sin¬ 
cerely hope and believe that we are beginning to have a better in¬ 
sight into it, and ere long shall be able to conquer it. 
ON THE USE OF IODINE. 
By Mr. JOHN Harvey, Taunton. 
I HAVE been trying the effect of the iodide of potassium, com¬ 
bined with mercurial ointment, in the reduction of tumours. 1 
have used them in the proportions of two ounces of the former to 
one pound of the latter. A steer, with an immense swelling on 
one side of the face from the ear to the angle of the mouth, so as 
to impede mastication, and which had existed for more than four 
months, and to which blisters had been applied many times during 
that period, was the subject selected. The swelling, at the com¬ 
mencement of the daily application of the ointment, was intensely 
hard. Within a week a marked alteration had taken place : the 
tumour became softer, and considerably reduced in size; and, at 
the expiration of three weeks, that side of the face was as fine as 
the other, and the beast enabled to eat hay as well as any other 
food, and which, before the use of the unguent, he had not been 
able to accomplish. 
CASES OF OPEN JOINT. 
By Mr. Ed. Hodgson, Market Baisen. 
The first which I shall offer to your notice is that of a mare, 
who received a kick over the stifle from another horse standing 
next her, and which cut through the ligaments at the lower part 
of the patella in such a manner, as to leave an orifice large enough 
to admit of three of my fingers, which f could pass between the 
tibia and patella. She travelled eight miles before she was taken 
out of the team, and the synovia had continued to escape copiously 
the whole of her miserable journey. My first thought was to stop 
the orifice as soon as \ could; F therefore took two ounces each of 
burnt-alum, common salt, and bole-armenian, with which, to use a 
vulgar expression, I stopped the hole at least twenty times a-day. 
VOL. XIII. * T 
