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Luxation of the patella is a condition wherein the articular portions of the femur and patella assume abnormal relations whether such displacement of the patella be momentary and capable of spontaneous reduction, or fixed and requiring corrective manipulation.

If lameness is due to acute inflammation bad results such as sloughing and loss of the hoof may follow; and if large exostoses mechanically interfere with function of the joint, or where articular erosions exist, no possible good can come from neurectomy.

The case made a complete recovery and the pony was again in service within sixty days. Case 2. A twelve-hundred-pound bay mare with an open carpal joint. The wound was an open one about two and one-half inches in length, and made transversely and when the member was flexed the articular surface of the carpal bones were presented to view.

The scapula resembles that of the cetacean Hyperoodon, but the supra-spinous fossa is larger and more seal-like; as is the humerus, which differs from that of the Cetacea in presenting true articular surfaces for the free jointing of the bones of the fore-arm.

If a periosteal gumma breaks down and invades the skin, a syphilitic ulcer is formed with carious bone at the bottom. A central gumma may eat away the surrounding bone to such an extent that the shaft undergoes pathological fracture. In the rare cases in which it attacks the articular end of a long bone, gummatous disease may implicate the adjacent joint and give rise to syphilitic arthritis.

The condition extends right up to the articular cartilage, or, in the case of adolescent bones, up to the epiphysial cartilage. Prognosis. The condition does not appear to affect the general health. The future is concerned with the local conditions, and, especially in the case of the femur, with its liability to fracture; so far as we know there is no time limit to this.

In a forward luxation of this kind, the operator should further flex the humerus, and while it is in this flexed position, force is exerted upon the articular head of this bone, and it is pushed downward and backward into its normal position.

Washing with soap and water had very little effect upon it; but it was removed with ether, the skin still looking darker and redder than normal. After a week's treatment with saline purgatives the discoloration was much less, but the patient still had articular pains, for which alkalies were prescribed; she did not again attend.

However, Lienaux and Zwanenpoete state that fracture of the neck of the femur is of frequent occurrence in Belgian colts. In this case the mule was found decumbent on a concrete floor. After three weeks, the subject was destroyed and autopsy revealed rupture of the left pubiofemoral ligament, tearing with it a portion of the articular surface of the femur.

The hair over the entire surgical field is clipped and the cautery at white heat is pushed through the overlying soft tissues and into the central part of the exostosis. Care is taken to keep the cautery-point away from the articular margin of the tibial tarsal bone about three-fourths of an inch. No danger will result from cauterizing to a depth of three-fourths of an inch in the average case.