LAMENESS: ITS CAUSES AND TREATMENT. 307 



ground, move boldly and rapidly fotuuiil. and strike the ground 

 promptly and forcibly. All this is due to the fact that the s(jund 

 member carries more than its normal, healthy share of the weijjjht of 

 the body, a share which may be in excess from 1 to 'J.-jO j)ounils, and 

 thus bring its burden to a figure varying from 'jr>l to 500 pouuds, all 

 depending upon the degree of the existing lameness, whether it is 

 simply a slight tenderness or soreness, or whether the trouble has 

 reached a stage which compels the patient to the awkwardness of 

 traveling on three legs. 



That all this is not mere theory, but rests on a foundation of fact 

 may be established by observing the manifestations attending a single 

 alteration in ihe balancing of the botly. In health the support aud 

 ecjuilibrium of that mass of the body which is borne by the fore legs 

 is equalized and passes by regular alternations froui the right to the 

 left side and vice versa. But if the left leg, becoming disabled, 

 relieves itself by leaning, as it were, on the right, the latter becomes, 

 conse<iuently, practically heavier and the mass of the body will 

 incline or settle upon that side. Lameness of the left side, therefore, 

 means dropping or settling on the right and vice versa. We empha- 

 size this statement and insist upon it. the moie from the frequency 

 of the instances of error which have come under our notice, in which 

 I^ersons have insisted upon their view that the leg which is the seat 

 of the lamene.ss is that upon which he drops and wliich the animal is 

 usually supposed to favor. 



HOW TO DETECT THE SEAT OF LAMENESS. 



Properly appreciating the remarks which have preceded, and fully 

 comprehending the moilus o[)eiandi and the true i)athol(»gy of lame- 

 ness, but little remains to be done in order to reach an answer to the 

 question as to which side of the animal is the seat of the lameness, 

 except to examine the j)atient while in artion. We have already stated 

 our reasons for preferring the movement of trotting for this purpose. 

 In conducting such an examination the animal should be unblanketed, 

 and held by a plain haltei- in the hands of a man who knows how to 

 manage his paces, and the trial should always be made over a firm, 

 hard road whenevei" it i> available. He is to be examined from 

 various positions — from Ijefore. from behiiul. and from each side. 

 Watching him as he approaches, as he passes by. and as he recedes, 

 the observer should carefully study that impoitunt action which we 

 have sjx)ken of as the dropping of the body upon one extremity or the 

 other, and this can readily be detected by attending closely to the 

 motions of the head and of the hi[). The head drops on the same side 

 on which the mass of the body will fall, dropping toward the right 

 when the lameness is in the left fore leg, and the hip dropping in pos- 

 terior lameness, also on the sound leg, the reversal of the conditions, 



