162 ON TUMOURS ABOUT TUE KNEES OF COWS. 
of the malady is very slow; but the tumours insensibly increase, 
and in about six months attain a size equal to that of a common 
drinking glass; they are of an oblong form from the top to the 
bottom, and when they have arrived at that state, the lameness 
is very great, the motion of the joint is impeded, and sometimes 
its action is perfectly destroyed. In these cases the animals are 
incapable of the slightest work. 
The most careful researches have not thrown much light on 
the causes of this affection. Can it be thus accounted for, that 
the. farms in which it principally prevails are near the river, 
whence a thick fog constantly rises during the change of 
weather, and often at other times ? Or may we suppose that 
the pastures in the neighbourhood of the river are injurious? 
This is what I cannot decide. 
I have treated these tumours both at their commencement and 
when they had become more fully developed. Frictions with 
the spirit of turpentine and volatile alkali were employed at 
first; also the tincture of cantharides and camphorated spirit. 
This treatment sometimes dispersed the tumours, but it was not 
long before they re-appeared; I then was compelled to have 
recourse to firing, and tried the budding-iron, with which I 
pierced the skin in several places. A very clear yellow matter 
flowed from these openings, and the tumour subsided imme¬ 
diately. 1 afterwards put a thick layer of blistering ointment 
over the part which I had cauterized, and which, in a few days, 
provoked an abundant suppuration: the v/ound was washed with 
warm aromatic wine, and covered with tow, retained in its 
situation by a bandage. The animals were allowed good litter, 
and kept in the stable while under treatment. The tumour 
usually disappeared in about a month, but the lameness was not 
quite got rid of for some time after that. 
I have occasionally passed a seton covered with blister oint¬ 
ment through these tumours, from the top to the bottom. The 
same fluid was discharged, but the skin became hard and callous, 
and I was obliged at last to have recourse to the firing-iron, 
although there was now no necessity to perforate the skin. If 
the disease appeared in both knees at the same time (a thing 
which I have only once observed), I treated them in this way, 
the one after the other. I have performed these operations 
on eight cows belonging to M. Vidal and to M. Orombel, and 
always with great success. 
Second species .— A hard and slightly painful enlargement 
appears in the same part. At first it is small, and of an oblong 
form; but it also increases to the size of a drinking glass. It 
does not yield on pressure; it is not so long in developing itself; 
