AS TO SOUNDNESS. 33 



off of the hair, to laying open of the joint and exposure 

 of the bones. And yet, strange as it may appear to 

 you, I can assure you that, throughout the whole horse 

 universe, there is almost as strong an objection to the 

 very mildest blemish at this part as there is to the very 

 worst. Why this widely- prevalent suspicion of "broken 

 knees " ? We ought never to altogether ignore a popular 

 belief, and therefore not this. The degrees of injury to 

 the knee, all ahke known opprobriously as " broken 

 knee," I will enumerate as they actually occur, i. You 

 may have mere chipping or clipping of the hair, with or 

 without a bruise of the integuments beneath. 2. You 

 may have the above, together with wounded skin. 

 3. You may have the first two together, with a clean 

 incision of the subcutaneous (cellular) tissue ; or this 

 tissue, instead of being simply incised, may be bruised 

 and lacerated. 4. You may have the three foregoing 

 conditions, together with exposure and wounding of the 

 hard tissues forming the extensor tendons and their 

 sheaths, as they pass in front of the knee. 5. You 

 may have the knee joint itself laid open. Now as to 

 your diagnosis of these respective conditions, beginning 

 at the first. It is evident that, if the hair only is cut, 

 it will grow again, and you would fail to find any evi- 

 dence of the injury after two or three weeks. If, 

 however, as more frequently happens, the knee receives 

 a blow at the time of the accident — although the skin 

 may not be cut — the skin may have been damaged and 

 the hair bulbs so injured, that they for ever afterwards 



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