SPIRIT OF THE MONTHLIES. 351 



shoulder-blade to the body ; yet the swelling is on the outside, but 

 this arises from sympathy. 



When the horse is observed to be lame, and it cannot at once be 

 determined where the lameness is, let him be walked ; and if he 

 dras[ his toe, it is in the shoulder. Let the shoulder be examined in 

 front ; if the affection be of long standing, the shoulder will be seen 

 to be less than the other. If, on feehiig it, it be found to be free of 

 heat, there will be no fever : the disease is then chronic. If, how- 

 ever, the shoulder be enlarged, it will be found, on feeling, to be 

 hot : the injury is then recent and intlammatory. Where the disease 

 is in the shoulder, and is chronic, it has gone through the inllam- 

 matory stage, and is of some considerable standmg. The chronic 

 slate is rarely cured. It is not unlike rheumatism. For the chronic 

 state, the best remedy is active blistering : this will rouse the 

 vessels to activity. It may be necessary to blister repeatedly ; and 

 exercise should accompany the biisterinij, with good grooming and 

 general care. Let the exercise commence as soon as the blister 

 begins to diminisii its discharge. This treatment, continued judi- 

 ciousl}' and energetically for some time, may cure chronic disease 

 of the shoulder. When the strain is recent, and inflammation exists, 

 the horse should be bled from the neck, and from the plate vein on 

 the inside of the leg, as near the body as possible. Rest, cooling 

 physic, both purgative and sedentary, should be given : no blistrring 

 should be allowed. Embrocations of a cooling nature should be ap- 

 plied. No stimulants should be applied externally, or given : they 

 but add to the inflammation. When the inflammation is subdued, 

 and the shoulder has fallen back to its natural size, the horse needs 

 nothing but rest, with gentle exercise. Let him be turned out, if in 

 the summer, to grass ; in tne winter, into a small yard in good 

 weather, and a loose box at night in bad weather. It will take him 

 some lime to get over the effects, and be flt for work again. 



When the shoulder is shrunk or swinnied from lameness in the 

 foot or leg, below the shoulder, no attention should be paid to the 

 shoulder. When both feet or legs are diseased, so that the horse 

 seeks to relieve each alternately from pressure, both shoulders will 

 be swinnied ; they will be both shrunk, and the breast in front will 

 be diminished and tall in. The treatment in these cases is to be 

 addressed to the place of disease. If in the feet, cure them ; if in 

 the legs, cure them. .*Some diseases in the feet cannot be cured ; 

 and, of course, if there be swinny from such cause, it cannot be 

 removed. When the feet and legs are cured, and the horse recovers 

 thereby his wonted action, the muscles of the shoulder will, by 

 exercise, recover their former size, and the swinny be gone. 



Among the ignorant there is a variety of remedies for the swinny, 

 as pegging (that is, thrusting a knife in the shoulder, and blowing 

 in stimulating powders), swimming, selons, etc. A recent writer in 

 the Soutliern Cultivator, says, " Introduce the small blade of a 

 common pocket knife (the point of which must be sharp), into the 



