198 
A. ZUNDEL. 
liquid caustics act with regularity and cure with certainty. A 
bar shoe, not pressing on the diseased quarter, is also useful. 
Emollient poultices are sometimes necessary, after the injection, 
to diminish the irritation. Mariage also recommends them. If 
the fistula extends under the coronary band, or the podophyllous 
tissue, it becomes necessary to thin, or to remove altogether, the 
hoof of the diseased quarter. 
After fifteen days of this treatment, the exfoliation often takes 
place, and recovery follows. Often, however, twice this length 
of time is necessary. After the first eight days the pus becomes 
more abundant, white, and laudable ; the tumor softens and di¬ 
minishes, as the pain subsides. Later, the injections penetrate 
with greater difficulty, which is a good sign. The injections con¬ 
stantly attack the germ of the disease and leave it without chance 
to re-form or to spread; the gangrenous structure which devel- 
opes in the cartilage is changed into an inert substance ; the pyo¬ 
genic membrane of the fistulous tract is stimulated ; the process 
of granulation becomes more rapid ; the wound becomes more and 
more healthy, and the diseased process ceases. If, however, it 
continues, the wound changes its character; large granulations 
develop themselves, and on their center, the openings of the fis¬ 
tulous tracts, which open on the cartilage, make their appearance. 
At times the wound closes ; but, after a short interval opens 
again, or another forms at another point. There is then a repe¬ 
tition of the same course of treatment by caustic applications,— 
but generally, this indicates a complication, and suggests the pro¬ 
priety of an operation. The injections are generally successful, 
however, and most certainly so if the caries occupies the poste¬ 
rior parts of the cartilage. They may even succeed in the ante¬ 
rior parts, whcij the animal is young and of good constitution. 
But if the cartilage has already become partly ossified, the caustic 
is irregular in its action, and the result becomes doubtful. If the 
caries is deep and extensive, and especially if the necrosis extends 
through and through to a point corresponding to the synovial 
capsule of the articulation of the last phalanx; or if the necrosis 
exists on the internal face of the cartilage, where it covers that 
structure, then the repeated injections of Villate’s, or of any otfyey 
