TREATMENT OF OPEN JOINTS. 
379 
of the heart. The heart itself, being incised and washed, presented an 
unusual appearance. The auriculo-ventricular valves spread out and 
held to the light were turned purple, brown and red from centre to 
borders from ecchymosis, and there were one or two prominent ecchy- 
mosed spots on the lining membrane of the ventricles. 
Theo. S. Very. 
Boston, December 24th, 1877. 
TREATMENT OF OPEN JOINTS. 
By Wm. Cutting, V. S. 
A Paper read before the Rochester Veterinary Medical Association. 
- uoo - 
I propose to give you some of my experience in the treatment of 
open joints, punctured or otherwise wounded. In 1843 or 4, I was 
foreman and assistant to Mr. Henry Rickard, M. R. C. V. S., of Pen¬ 
zance, Cornwall, England. Mr. Rickard was called upon to operate on 
a young gelding, for enlarged bursse of the hock. The method of treat¬ 
ment Mr. Rickard adopted, was to pass a seton, subcutaneously, and 
perpendicularly, over the enlargement without wounding the sac, and 
blister the hock as soon as the animal arrived in the barn after the 
operation. I cast the beast on smooth grass with hobbles, the owner 
was present, Mr. Rickard was in the act of passing the needle over the 
bursae, when the animal suddenly struggled, the needle entered the sac 
near the centre, and the synovial fluid ran out freely. The owner was 
pleased and said, “ Now, my horse will get well. Look at the matter 
ov’m, Mr. Rickard.” Mr. Rickard told the man that he was sorry the 
accident had occurred, that he was afraid it would result disastrously. 
The horse was led home a distance of six or seven miles, and Mr. 
Rickard went out, and placed the animal under treatment. He was 
bled, a cathartic administered, and an astringent paste was applied 
to the wound. The paste was made with alum, wrey-gum, myrrh and 
the red oxide of iron, and applied on cotton with compression, and the 
whole joint enveloped with linseed meal poultice, the animal lived five 
or six weeks, and died a miserable object. I was taught, when an ap¬ 
prentice, never to wound a joint, and I am opposed to injecting any 
substance into a joint after it is wounded. Perhaps the tincture 
of iodine, and even an alcoholic solution of the bi-chloride of mercury 
has been used with advantage, occasionally, in joint wounds, but I am 
satisfied that if proper treatment is used soon after the accident such 
