SLANTING DIRECTION OF THE SHOULDER. 220 



portion of which is enlarged, may be sound, while the other may be shrunk 

 from want of equal exertion, arising from injury of long standing. Tiio 

 heat and tenderness, if there be any, will be found within the arm, clost* 

 to the chest ; and will belong more to the muscles of the breast than to thoso 

 under the shoulder. 



The symptoms, however, of shoulder-lameness can scarcely be mistaken ; 

 and, when we relate them, the farmer will recollect that they very seldom 

 occurred when the village-smith pointed to the shoulder as the seat of dis- 

 ease, and punished the animal for no purpose. In sprain of the shoulder 

 the horse will evidently suffer extreme pain while moving, and the muscle 

 underneath being inflamed and tender, he will extend it as little as possible. 

 He will drag his toe along the ground. It is in the lifting of the foot that the 

 shoulder is principally moved : if the foot be lifted high, let the horse be 

 ever so lame, the shoulder is little, if at all affected. The lame limb is 

 suffered to bear the weight a much shorter time in this than in any other 

 kind of lameness. In sprain of the back sinews, it is only when the horse 

 is in motion that the injured parts are put to most pain; the pain is greatest 

 here when the weight rests on the limb, and, therefore, there is a peculiar 

 quickness in catching up the limb, in shoulder lameness, the moment the 

 weight is thrown on it. This is particularly evident when the horse is going 

 down hill, and the injured limb bears an additional portion of the weight. 

 In the stable, too, when the horse points or projects one foot before the other, 

 that foot is usually flat on the ground. In shoulder-lameness the toe alone 

 rests on the ground. The circumstance which most of all characterizes 

 this affection, is, that when the foot is lifted, and then brought considerably 

 forward, the horse will express great pain, which he will not do if the 

 the lameness be in the foot or the leg. We have dwelt longer on this 

 point, that our readers may be enabled to put to the test the many cases of 

 shoulder-lameness which exist only in the imagination of the groom or 

 the farrier. 



In sprain of the internal muscles of the shoulder, few local measures can 

 be adopted. The horse should be bled from the vein on the inside of the 

 arm (the plate vein), because the blood is then abstracted more immediately 

 from the inflamed part. A dose of physic should be given, and fomenta- 

 tions applied, and principally on the inside of the arm, close to the chest; 

 while the horse is kept as quiet as possible. The injury is too deeply 

 seated for external stimulants to have a very great effect, yet a blister will 

 very properly be resorted to, if the lameness is not speedily removed. The 

 swimming of the horse is an inhuman practice ; it tortures the animal, and 

 increases the inflammation. The pegging of the shoulder (puncturing the 

 skin, and blowing into the cellular structure beneath, until it is considerablv 

 puffed up) is another relic of ignorance and barbarity. 



SLANTING DIRECTION OF THE SHOULDER. 



The lessening or breaking of the shock, from the weight being thrown 

 violently on the fore legs, is effected in another way. It will be observed, 

 that (see G and J, p. 63) the shoulder-blade and the lower bone of the 

 shoulder are not connected together in a straight line, but form a very con- 

 siderable angle with each other. This will be more evident from the fol- 

 lowing cut, which represents the fore and hind extremities in the situations 

 which they occupy in the horse. 



This angular construction of the limbs reminds us of the similar arrange- 

 ment of the springs of a carriage, and the ease of motion, and almost per 

 feet freedom from jolting, which are thereby obtained. 



