224 
AMERICAN VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
Upon the second day lameness was, if anything, slightly in¬ 
creased ; the parts somewhat swollen and a deep-seated fluctua¬ 
tion detected at the point of the injury. 
The day following, what was at first only a slight wound had 
become transformed into a track leading directly down upon the 
small metatarsal bone, with evidence of that most formidable of 
complications, an open joint, as shown by a slight escape of 
synovial fluid. The bone gave a grating sensation upon the in¬ 
troduction of the probe, and appeared also slightly movable. 
From now on the severity of the symptoms continued to in¬ 
crease day by day ; pain became constant and lancinating in char¬ 
acter, the animal keeping the limb in constant motion; the hock 
became greatly swollen; heat manifested over its entire extent, 
the discharge of synovial fluid becoming mixed with pus of a 
sanious nature; appetite began gradually to fail, with rapid ema¬ 
ciation ; temperature varying between 102° and 103°. 
In view of the condition of the animal generally and the ex¬ 
tent and character of the lesions locally, the owner finally con¬ 
sented to have him destroyed, which was accordingly done on the 
19th of June. 
Autopsy revealed a general synovitis of the entire hock, the 
membrane being greatly thickened, the sac distended with syno¬ 
vial fluid and a small quantity of pus. The connective tissue be¬ 
neath the skin was infiltrated with serum and a plastic exudate 
which had become organized. The superior extremity of the ex¬ 
ternal rudimentary metatarsal bone was fractured in a manner so 
as to form six or seven separate pieces of as many different sizes; 
they being held, however, in perfect apposition, the entire mass 
being surrounded by extravasated blood. The periosteum about 
the seat of the fracture was also concerned, in many places being 
an eighth of an inch in thickness. 
There existed no evidence of any reparative calus directly at 
the seat of the fracture, but the superior extremity of the large 
metatarsal and the lower row of tarsal bones showed an abund¬ 
ance of osseous deposits. 
