482 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
and this, in its turn, take on a suppurative action. Under unusual 
excitement, from the very first, solid instead of fluid matters will 
be effused, or there may be a combination of both ; and the solid 
deposition, unless timely dispersion of the tumour be effected, will, 
in the course of time, become altered from mere lymphy matter to 
hard fibro-cartilaginous substance, having a yellowish white as¬ 
pect, and looking like what is vulgarly called callus: the forth¬ 
coming change being one of a scirrhous nature. Upon the surface 
of this scirrhous tumour, now and then, suppurative action will 
spring up in places, giving rise to little abscesses, which will burst, 
and leave behind them ragged nasty-looking sores, leading into 
sinuses, and evincing little disposition to heal; in which foul in¬ 
tractable condition the tumour may, uncorrected, continue to annoy 
the animal even for years. Sometimes the tumour is encysted; i. e., 
is continued within a sac, formed around it by the condensation of 
the vicinous cellular tissue; and when this is the case, a simple 
operation gets rid of the enlargement at once. Sometimes, however, 
the tumour is found to be everywhere attached, and to have a 
broad basis, whose root may run deep enough to cling to the cap¬ 
sule of the elbow joint. This renders extirpation difficult and 
dangerous. 
The Magnitude the tumour in question is likely to acquire 
will, of course, be regulated by circumstances. Aggravating causes, 
and especially when they come to be often repeated, will occasion 
so much secretion and deposit through the inflammation they give 
rise to, that very large tumefactions will be the consequence. The 
ordinary magnitude of the tumour is that of a small apple; but it 
may grow as large as a very large apple, or a melon ; and, being 
solid and substantial within, its weight tells considerably. Mr. Braby 
had occasion to excise one off a dray-horse, he informed me, weigh¬ 
ing seven pounds! 
Lameness is not an accompaniment of capped elbow, no more 
than of capped hock, unless under extraordinary circumstances. 
When the tumour comes to acquire enormous bulk and weight, or 
to exhibit sores upon its surface, lameness may be occasioned by 
the inconvenience and impediment to motion of the elbow joint it 
causes, or by the pain or soreness produced on motion. 
Capped Elbow is caused by contusion of the part we call the 
cap. Usually, it originates from a horse bruising his elbows in 
lying down, either against the caulkins of his hind shoes, or against 
his hind hoofs, or, maybe, against the rough hard pavement he lies 
down upon. As one proof that such tumours arise in this manner, 
horses who do not lie down are never troubled with capped elbows. 
And to shew that the calkings have most to do with the causation, 
horses having their shoes turned up—such as cart and dray and 
