EXAMINATION OF HORSES 



When a tendon and any synovial sheath through 

 which it glides suffers injury, which sets up inflamma- 

 ticn, however slight, the first effect of the inflammation 

 is to arrest the function of the synovial membrane — 

 that is to say, to arrest the secretion of joint oil — and 

 we feel the parts swollen, hot and tender to the touch ; 

 and just as an engineer on feeling a shaft revolving in a 

 collar getting hot would stop his engine, and apply cold 

 water to cool the shaft, and re-oil the collar before again 

 starting the engine, so have we to take means to let the 

 machine rest, and subdue the inflammation which has 

 arrested the secretion of oil. In our case, now, we have 

 to follow the example of the engineer, who goes from 

 time to time to feel the temperature of the various 

 shafts which are revolving through collars, to feel that 

 they are cool, by which he infers that the collar is 

 well oiled. By the term well oiled an engineer means — 



1. Sufficiency of oil; 



2. Oil of good quality ; 



3. Covering evenly the entire surface of the shaft 

 which is grasped by the collar. 



The practical horseman does the same. The groom, 

 on removing the leg bandages in a morning, runs his 

 hand slowly and carefully down the back of the fore leg, 

 from above the knee to the pastern, to feel that the 

 synovial sheaths (collars) are cool. Perhaps the previous 

 evening, when he put on the bandages, the synovial 

 apparatus was hot, and a little swollen from overwork; 

 but a night's rest and the gentle pressure of his bandage 



