untry, but had little
more than started when he was called to a halt by the fracture of the
sesamoids of both fore legs.

While there are no positive premonitory symptoms of these fractures
known, we believe that there are signs and symptoms which come but
little short of being so, and the appearance of which will always
justify a strong suspicion of the truth of the case. These have been
indicated when referring to the soreness in standing, the short, mincing
gait, and the tenderness betrayed when pressure is made over the
sesamoids on the sides of the fetlock, with others less tangible and
definable.

_Prognosis._--These injuries can never be accounted less than serious,
and in our judgment will never be other than fatal. If our theory of
their pathology is the correct one, and the cause of the lesions is
truly the softening of the sesamoidal bony structure and independent of
any changes in the ligamentous fibers, the possibility of a solid
osseous union can hardly be considered admissible.

_Treatment._--In respect to the treatment to be recommended and
instituted it can be employed only with any rational hope of benefit
during the incubation, and with the anticipatory purpose of prevention.
It must be suggested by a suspicion of the verities of the case, and
applied before any rupture has taken place. To prevent this and to
antagonize the causes which might precipitate the final catastrophe--the
elevation of the toes--resort must be had to the slings and to the
application of firm bandages or splints, perhaps of plaster of Paris,
with a high shoe, as about the only indications which science and nature
are able to offer. When the fracture is an occurred event, and the toes,
one or more, are turned up, any further resort to treatment will be
futile.

DISEASES OF JOINTS.

Three classes of injury will be considered under this head. These are,
affections of the synovial sacs, those of the joint structures, or of
the bones and their articular surfaces, and those forms of solution of
continuity known as dislocations or luxations.

DISEASES OF THE SYNOVIAL SACS.

Two forms of affection here present themselves, one being the result of
an abnormal secretion which induces a dropsical condition of the sac
without any acute, inflammatory action, while the other is characterized
by excessive inflammatory symptoms, with their modifications,
constituting synovitis.

SYNOVIAL DROPSIES.

We have already considered