226 
OPEN STIFLE-JOINT. 
once accounted for. The stomach had been at the first 
ruptured in two of its coats, and that at least four weeks 
before death; only the mucous membrane had been left 
entire. The muscular coat being so extensively torn was the 
cause of all the pain when the stomach was distended by 
food, with the ugly symptom of sitting upon the haunches. 
The sleek, healthy-looking skin was accounted for because 
the mucous coat was not implicated. 
The treatment was successful so long as it was continued; 
but it was not continued long enough to allow of a complete 
recovery. From the extent of the lesion it must have taken 
months completely to cicatrize. 
Since then I have had a case similar in every particular, 
and I treated it according to the knowledge I obtained from 
this case. The mare was often fed with nutritious food in 
small quantities, and for months could not be allowed a full 
supply of anything; she, however, ultimately recovered, and 
I kept sight of her for years, during which time she had no 
return of any of the symptoms. Was Mr. Billingtoffs case of 
this kind ? And had the mucous membrane stood out longer 
than the others ? were the questions that at once suggested 
themselves to me. 
OPEN STIFLE-JOINT. 
* 
By J. Edge, Student of Veterinary Medicine with 
W. Cox, M.B.C.V.S., Ashbourne. 
We were called on the 1st of November last to visit a 
brown filly, belonging to Mrs. Wright, of BassetPs Wood, 
near this town. We found her suffering from a contused 
wound on the stifle-joint, just below the patella, the result of a 
kick from another horse. The wound was probed, but did not 
seem of great depth, although the swelling was considerable. 
Treatment. —Fomentations, and the administration of altera¬ 
tive and fever medicines. On the 3rd she was again visited, 
and an escape of synovia perceived. On re-examining the 
wound, we found the skin and tissue covering the joint were 
torn from it, as if the calkin of the shoe might have broken 
the skin, and become fast in it; the actual opening into the 
joint would admit of the introduction of the thumb, and the 
outer surfaces of the bones could be felt for several inches in 
circumference; the tumefaction around the orifice was much 
lessened; pulse quiet. 
