STRAINS. 77 



Previous to farther animadverfion, It becomes 

 unavoidably neceflary to combat the promul- 

 gated opinion of Osmer, who, in his remarks, 

 ventures an alTertion that " tendons are un- 

 " elaftic bodies," though in the very fame page 

 (and frequently after), he fays, " the tendon is 

 " often elongated and ftrained/' — How this 

 writer, or his readers, could reconcile fuch pal- 

 pable abfurdity and contradidlion, I am at a lofs 

 to conceive ; or how a tendon can be elongated^ 

 that has no eUJiicityy I am yet to learn. Nor does 

 the introduction of this obfervation prove of 

 greater utility than to corroborate the propriety 

 of my former remarks upon the fmgularity of 

 ANCIENT pradlice and modern piiblicatio?2s. 



To underftand this fubjedl clearly, It Is un- 

 avoidably neceflary to be informed not only of 

 the caufes from which fuch complaints pro- 

 ceed, but the parts that conftitute the feat 

 of difeafe itfelf. To acquire which let it be 

 obferved strains are of two forts, the one 

 originating in the ligamentary parts, by which 

 the different joints are preferved in contadl ; 

 the other by a relaxation of the 772ufclesy or 

 tendons f whofe purpofes are the direft office 

 of motion. Hence it is that the farrier and 



groom 



