AS TO SOUNDNESS. 39 



So few horses are quite sound that there must be qualify- 

 ing matter in many pass certificates, and this may be of 

 so formidable a character from its length as utterly to 

 drown the few words in which an opinion is offered. But 

 of this I shall say more further on. Lastly, with regard 

 to broken knees, you have the intermediate cases to 

 decide upon, and you will find it a good rule to reject as 

 unsound all cases in which you find distinct evidence 

 of injury which has failed to become entirely obliterated 

 in six months. This I do without any qualification 

 whatever, irrespective of form and action, for both are 

 of little moment when the horse gets "' leg tired ; " it is 

 then that the weakness left after a severe blow shows 

 itself. 



Enlargements about the knee are sometimes of no 

 importance. We not unfrequently find enlargements, just 

 above the joint, of the hard tissues, caused by leaping 

 over timber and stone walls, which are of no importance 

 physically if they do not prevent the perfect flexion of 

 the joint, tested by lifting the foot and causing the pad 

 of fetlock to touch the elbow. There are other enlarge- 

 ments, called ganglions^ which appear about the knees and 

 hocks, generally in front of the former and at the sides 

 of the latter. Sometimes these are of considerable size, 

 and are, either from their size or from their causing im- 

 paired mobility of a joint, unsoundnesses. They do not 

 seem to arise from inflammation, but rather to be of 

 the nature of simple cysts. They are slightly movable, 

 indolent, and painless, and appear to be situated in the 



