LAMENESS. 9 



limbs act with that simultaneousness and velocity that — the sound 

 leg taking the greatest share of the weight, and thereby saving the 

 infirm one — no perceptible flinching or dropping takes place : none, 

 at least, so long as the horse is capable of galloping. 



In respect to the leg upon which a horse " drops," any man who 

 has been lame himself — who has had (and who has not had?) a 

 painful corn — and has noted his own limping action, will not need 

 to be informed that every time pressure upon his corned foot gives 

 him pain, instantly flinching from it, by a momentary elevation of 

 his body, he lifts his weight as much as he can off his ailing foot, 

 to let it down or " drop" upon his sound foot. The same thing 

 happens in the lame horse. Flinching from the pressure or con- 

 cussion of the lame leg or foot against the ground, he suddenly 

 lifts the lame side of his body to " drop " the weight of it upon the 

 sound side. Should the lameness be in one of his fore limbs, the 

 head with the body is elevated and depressed, the latter motion 

 giving to the head that significant *'nod" by which we distinguish 

 at once which is the lame leg ; on the other hand, if the lameness 

 be in a hind limb, the crouij will ascend and descend, the head 

 being kept steady the while, or else jerked up every time acute 

 pain is experienced. It is by observing the elevation and de- 

 clination or "nodding of the head," and the raising and sink- 

 ing of the croup, that we in general are enabled to say at once 

 which is the lame leg : we watch the rise and the fall or *' drop," 

 sometimes nodding our own head in concert with the nod of that 

 of the lame horse, by way of setting up a sort of memorandum or 

 note in our own mind to guide us to a surer diagnosis. I remem- 

 ber the late Professor Coleman was in the habit of doing this ; 

 and so are many excellent veterinary practitioners of our own 

 day. 



The Trot is the Pace in which Lameness is best shewn, 

 in which, indeed, it is shewn when the walk discloses no sign of it, 

 and while the horse still retains the power of galloping as though 

 nothing ailed him : the explanation of which has already been 

 given. On this account the trot may emphatically be denomi- 

 nated the trial pace — the test of soundness or unsoundness, so far, 

 at least, as action is concerned. Such being the importance of the 



VOL TV. C 



