124 
TRANSCRIPTION OF SOME CASES OCCURRING TO, 
AND NOTED BY, MR. CHARLES HUNTING. 
Open Joint. 
A GBEY gelding, five years old, the property of the owners 
of Trindon Grange Colliery, in the county of Durham, was 
used habitually in the pit, and whilst at work on the 3d Novem¬ 
ber, 1851, he ran his head with considerable violence against 
the sharp edge of a projecting stone. This inflicted a fracture 
on the inferior and outer part of the orbital process of the frontal 
bone, on the left side ; the wound extending over the tempero- 
maxillary articulation. I did not see the case until twenty 
hours after the accident had occurred. 
On first seeing the animal, I observed that he suffered little pain 
—the pulse was but forty in number, and normal in character— 
the breathing natural, and the appetite not in the least impaired. 
The wound was uneven, and opposite the fracture, which was 
comminuted, and at the inferior part of the gash, was some loose 
bone. The amount of tumefaction and coagulated blood around 
the wound being considerable, I ordered the parts to be fomented 
with warm water, not suspecting at the time that the injury 
was deep enough to have opened the tempero-maxillary articu¬ 
lation, especially as no synovia escaped. There were other 
slight wounds about the body. 
I prescribed a cathartic, and rigorous diet, consisting in 
mashes. 
November 6/A.—To-day the animal refuses his hay, and his 
diet consists in a small quantity of corn, and bran mashes. The 
pulse is forty-six, and somewat wiry. The tumefaction around 
the wound is increased, and a discharge of glutinous colourless 
fluid, coagulating as it trickles from the orifice over the max¬ 
illary articulations, is apparent. This is evidently the modified 
secretion from the inflamed synovial membrane of the joint, 
inasmuch as it increases considerably when mastication is 
going on. 
The orifice giving exit to this somewhat altered synovia 
being small, I decided on plugging it by the means most ready 
at hand, viz., a red hot iron, which very successfully produced 
an artificial eschar. 
T gave orders that the animal’s head should be confined, 
and that no food should be given him for the next forty hours. 
Saturday theSth .—The horse is progressing very favourably ; 
pulse forty, and of natural beat. The wound looks healthy, and 
