STRAINS. iz 



" dons are unelastic bodies," though in the 

 very same page (and frequently after,) he says, 

 '* the tendon is often elongated and strain- 

 ed." How this writer, or his readers, could 

 reconcile such palpable absurdity and con- 

 tradiction, I am at a loss to conceive^ or 

 how a tendon can be elongated, that has no 

 elasticity y I am yet to learn. Nor does the 

 introduction of this observation prove of 

 greater utility than to corroborate the pro- 

 priety of my former remarks upon the sin- 

 gularity of ANCIENT practice and modern 

 publications. 



To understand this subject clearly, it is 

 unavoidably necessary to be informed not 

 only of the causes from which such com- 

 plaints proceed, but the parts that constitute 

 the seat of disease itself. To acquire which 

 let it be obiierved strains are of two sorts, 

 the one originating in the ligamentary parts, 

 by which the different joints are preserved, 

 in contact ; the other by a relaxatiou of the 

 muscles, or tendons, whose purposes are the 

 direct ojfice of motion. Hence ic is that the 

 farrier and groom are so frequently at a loss 

 for their definition or explanation of any par- 



