STRING HALT CHOREA. 83 



life, but in its most common form only affects the hind extremi- 

 ties, where it is observed by the temporary lameness and stiff- 

 ness it produces, in the hardly worked horse, as he is first led out 

 of the stable in the morning. If any lameness remains, which 

 can be ascertained by presshig the parts, it should be removed 

 by hard rubbing, or by giving the horse a wider and more com- 

 fortable stall, if that should appear to be the origin of the 

 difficulty. 



STRINGHALT. 



This is a sudden and spasmodic action of some of the muscles 

 of the thigh when the horse is first led from the stable. One or 

 both legs are caught up at every step with great rapidity and 

 violence, so that the fetlock sometimes touches the belly ; but, 

 after the horse has been out a little while, this usually goes off 

 and the natural action of the animal returns. In a few cases it 

 does not perfectly disappear after exercise, but the horse continues 

 to be slightly lame. 



Stringhalt is not a perfectly involuntary action of a certain 

 muscle, or a certain set of muscles. The limb is flexed at the 

 command of the will, but it acts to a greater extent and with 

 more violence than the will had prompted. 



Professor Spooner is of opinion that this peculiar affection is not 

 referable to any diseased state of the brain or spinal cord, nor to 

 any local affection of the muscles of the limbs, but simply to 

 a morbid affection of the sciatic nerve. He has not dissected a 

 single case of stringhalt in which he has not found disease of this 

 nerve, which mainly contributes to supply the hind extremities 

 with sensation and the power of voluntary motion. 



Stringhalt is decided unsoundness ; but generally speaking, it 

 so little interferes with the services of the animal, that although 

 an unsoundness, it would not weigh a great deal against other 

 manifest valuable qualities. 



CHOREA. 



This is a convulsive, involuntary t^vitching of some muscie or 

 set of muscles. A few, and very few, cases of it in the horse are 

 recorded. Professor Gohier relates one in which it attacked both 

 fore-legs, and especially the left, but the affection was not con- 

 stant. During five or six minutes the spasms were most vio- 

 lent, so that the horse was scarcely able to stand. The convul- 

 sions then became weaker, the interval between them increased, 

 and at length they disappeared, leaving a slight but temporary 

 lameness. All means of cure were fruitlessly tried, and the dis- 

 ease continued until the horse died of some other complaint. In 



