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No good comes from appliances which are calculated to stretch the affected tendons; in fact, they aggravate the inflamed condition and hasten complete loss of function of the affected member. Where there exists no articular or ligamentous diseases which would defeat the purpose, tenotomy is the only remedy for contracted tendons. Contracted Tendons of Foals. Etiology and Occurrence.

Ankylosis is the term applied when impaired mobility results from changes involving the articular surfaces. It is frequently combined with contracture. The resulting stiffness, therefore, varies from a mere restriction of the normal range of movement, up to a close union of the bones which prevents movement.

Startings at night are to be regarded as an indication that there is progressive disease involving the articular surfaces. The formation of extra-articular abscess may take place early, or it may not occur till long after the disease has subsided.

Six months later the colt was practically well, a very little lameness being shown when walking on frozen ground. Case 7. A seven-year-old saddle-horse weighing eleven hundred and fifty pounds received a wound of the tarsus, laying bare the articular surfaces of a part of the joint. It was impossible to keep this wound bandaged because of the restless disposition of the subject.

Advanced articular caries is usually associated with some abnormal attitude and with shortening of the limb. It may be possible to feel the bony surfaces grate upon one another. When all its constituent elements are damaged or destroyed, a joint is said to be disorganised.

The crucial or interosseus, anterior and posterior, are situated between the femur and tibia, and according to Smith, the crucial ligaments are necessary to properly join the two bones, because of the character of the structure of the articular ends of the femur and tibia. The femeropatella ligaments are two thin bands which reinforce the capsular ligament.

Puncture wounds of any kind may serve to perforate the joint capsule and such traumatisms are occasioned by falls, kicks and in various ways in runaway accidents, and open carpal joint may follow. Symptomatology. The pathognomonic symptoms of the existence of an open joint is the exposure to view of articular surfaces of bones or noting the escape of synovia from the joint capsule.

Differential Diagnosis. There is nothing characteristic in the site of the primary lesion in man, and the condition may, during the early stages, be mistaken for a boil or carbuncle, or for any acute inflammatory condition. Later, the disease may simulate acute articular rheumatism, or may manifest all the symptoms of acute septicæmia or pyæmia.

The thickened synovial membrane is projected into the cavity of the joint, filling up its pouches and recesses, and spreading over the surface of the articular cartilage "like ivy growing on a wall." Wherever the synovial tissue covers the cartilage it becomes adherent to and fused with it.

The articular cartilages may subsequently be transformed into connective tissue, with consequent fibrous ankylosis and obliteration of the joint. The bones are affected only in so far as they undergo fatty atrophy from disuse of the limb, or alteration in their configuration as a result of partial dislocation. Osseous ankylosis may occur, especially in the small joints of the hand and foot.