218 WEST OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
there will be a large amount of periosteal disease, which may 
extend more or less to all the bones of the hock. 
I find it stated by Billroth, Rindfleisch, and other recent 
writers on pathology, that ulceration of the cartilages of joints is 
generally the effect of disease of the synovial membrane. I 
differ from that theory, having made some hundreds of dissec¬ 
tions of joint disease, and found almost invariably that ulceration 
of the cartilage commences about the centre of the joint, conse¬ 
quently not near the synovial fringes which are situated around 
the edges of the joint. 
Treatment .—In the early stages of the disease, when the bones 
may be presumed to be in a state of congestion or inflammation, 
place the horse in a loose box, give physic and apply cold lotions 
or water, and do not allow exercise or work for several weeks. 
If the lameness still continues, anchylosis has probably com¬ 
menced ; it will then be necessary to apply a blister or seton, or 
to fire over a large surface. I prefer the pointed iron, as it does 
not leave so much blemish as deep firing with an ordinary iron, 
but the dots, when deep, ought not to be closer than an inch, or 
there will be danger of sloughing. I prefer setoning to firing ; 
the action of the seton can be continued longer; if the tape be 
changed occasionally, and the wound properly attended to, there 
will only be a thickening of the skin and subcutaneous structures, 
which after a time will become absorbed, leaving no permanent 
blemish. After setoning or firing not less than three months' rest 
is necessary. Should the lameness not then be removed, and the 
horse a valuable one, continue the treatment; but if the lameness 
is not much, and the horse not valuable, and it is possible or con¬ 
venient to put him to work which will not require him to go 
beyond a walking pace, it may be done with benefit, as it 
tends to increase the reparative process and assist the union of 
the diseased surfaces of bone by the formation of new bone-cells ; 
in fact, its action is in a modified form the same as firing or 
setoning. 
I have on different occasions known horses to be out of work 
and under treatment for spavin for nearly a year and yet continue 
lame, but upon putting them to slow work for a few weeks they 
have entirely recovered from the lameness, but with more or less 
loss of flexion of the hock. If this course of treatment be fully 
carried out there will be but few animals which will not get free 
from lameness and become useful, although some of them may 
require two years to complete the anchylosing process. The 
amount of lameness attending the process, even when the horse is 
worked, differs very much; in some cases there is no positive 
lameness, only more or less stiffness or want of flexion; in others 
there is only occasional lameness, and that more especially after a 
