438 4 ON INFLAMMATION OF THE JOINTS, &C. 
with difficulty in swallowing. Mr. S. requested my attendance. I 
found the pulse quick and hard, mouth hot and parched, bowels 
costive; the colt straining considerably to dung; the joint of the 
hock in the near hind leg very much swollen, and hard to the feel; 
the femoral vein distended with blood ; the colt bears no weight 
upon the limb, and constantly lies down. I opened the femoral 
vein, and drew, by a copious stream, two quarts of blood: after 
pinning up he appeared rather faint, and the pulse' was much 
altered in character. I then gave aloes in solution 3j, and thin 
oatmeal gruel one quart, as a clyster; poultices of bran applied 
warm to the throat and hock, to be frequently renewed ; cow’s 
milk to be given as food. 
28 th. —The bowels are open, and the colt appears better. 
29th. —Throat quite relieved, and the swelling in the hock pro¬ 
ceeding to suppuration ; pulse more irritable than yesterday ; the 
joint evidently more painful; takes the cow’s milk freely : bowels 
in a good state. 
30 th. —The abscess in the joint has broke, and discharged a large 
quantity of sanguineous fluid, mingled with pus; the irritative 
fever much increased since yesterday, from which the colt is ra¬ 
pidly sinking : late in the evening he died. 
The only portion of the body reserved for my examination was 
the diseased limb ; on inspection of which I found a direct com¬ 
munication between the external wound and the cavity of the 
joint, formed by the tibia and astragalus, this cavity communi¬ 
cating with the bursse above. The synovial membrane of the 
joint was like crimson velvet; the articular cartilage was rapidly 
disappearing by absorption, the surface appearing like numerous 
pin-holes. The lower and posterior part of the tibia was de¬ 
nuded of its periosteum, its epiphyses gorged with blood, look¬ 
ing, when cut, more like muscle than imperfectly formed bone. 
Messrs. Editors,—I am sorry you tell us nothing about the 
Veterinary Medical Society, as was your custom. Your account 
of the meetings of that society used to form one of the most in¬ 
teresting portions of The Veterinarian. 
# # # There is an important error in the printing of my paper 
on Ophthalmia, in the last No. for July, at page 384, which you 
will observe, on a reference to that communication, is thus 
written, and should have been printed :—“ ‘ In proof of the stable 
malaria,’ says the Professor, ‘it would be a phenomenon to see 
ophthalmia in a horse that had been kept wholly at grass:’ In 
reply to which I observe, it would be equally rare to And a horse 
five or six years old that had been so kept, and whose services had 
been exacted in the usual way, that had not had ophthalmia .” 
