12 LAMENESS. 



THE LAME LiMB, and one that now and then, without proper at- 

 tention, will be committed even by professional persons, and there- 

 fore one against falling into which it behoves us all to be upon our 

 guard, is pronouncing lameness to be in ^fore leg when it is in the 

 reverse hind, or in a hind when it is in the reverse fore limb. 

 Simply observing upon which side or limb a lame horse drops will 

 point out to us whether his lameness exist in the off or the near 

 leg ; .such, however, is the sympathetic effect of this dropping or 

 lurch of the body upon the reverse hind or reverse fore limb to 

 that of which the animal goes lame, arising from the synchronous 

 action of these limbs in the trot, that, without attention to where- 

 abouts the dropping is especially taking place, we shall be apt to 

 assign a false locality to the lameness. For example, if lame in a 

 fore limb the animal's head will rise and fall, or '' nod," as he limps 

 along ; whereas, when the lameness is seated in a hind limb, the 

 croup will be the part which will manifest these risings and fall- 

 ings, or " droppings." For the young — very often for the more 

 experienced — practitioner, it is a good rule to withhold any opinion 

 about the lameness until the horse has been run both from and to 

 the observer ; the return trot serving either to confirm the impres- 

 sion made in his mind by the first run, or else to shew him that 

 such notion — fortunately for him unexpressed — was an erroneous 

 one. Should any doubt continue after the return trot, the run 

 should be repeated, it being far better for the examiner to bear the 

 imputation of slowness of judgment, or of indecision even, than to 

 risk being detected in so flagrant and serious an error as that of 

 hitting upon a sound limb for the lame one. 



The Seat of Lameness, by which is meant the situation of 

 the disease, injury, or deformity giving rise to it, is the inquiry 

 called for as soon as the determination of the lame limb is settled ; 

 and a most important inquiry it is, though one not in every 

 instance pursued with that success and satisfactoriness that could 

 be desired. 



To set about the treatment of lameness upon any scientific or 

 rational grounds three points require ascertainment : the first is, 

 the lame limh ; the second, the seat of what causes the lameness ; 

 the third, the nature of that cause : without these three pieces of 



