226 HIP-JOINT (or round-bone) lameness. 



however, and in the generality of the cases of external injury, 

 where the attention of the practitioner comes to be directed to the 

 hip, a perceptible difference in the halting action is observable. 

 There is a hop and a catch in the movement of the lame hind limb 

 which, to the practised eye, pretty clearly shews the lameness to 

 be in the hip : the hock, it being remarked, flexing itself with its 

 wonted freedom. 



Thus, the hip-joint, as Mr. Mayer has informed us, '' is not only 

 subject, like other joints, to strains of its connecting and capsular 

 ligaments, but likewise to synovial inflammation from accidental 

 injuries, &c., consequent ulceration of its cartilaginous surface, and 

 extensive formation of matter, which, ulcerating its way out, may 

 lie a long time embedded under the mass of muscles surrounding 

 the joint before it makes its way to the surface." 



" Foals," says Mr. Mayer, " and calves are occasionally subject 

 to scrofulous inflammation of the hip-joint." In some cases of this 

 kind he has " seen large formations of matter occur upon the sacro- 

 sciatic ligament without being connected with the hip-joint." — " In 

 others, the formation of matter takes place within the joint." 



But " in full-grown animals," continues Mr. Mayer, " we rarely 

 meet with scrofulous inflammation." In them, "in consequence 

 of strains, or of being thrown down, particularly in carts and car- 

 riages, synovial inflammation is set up ; and unless very vigorous 

 treatment is early adopted, it either terminates in perpetual lame- 

 ness from anchylosis, &c., or in the formation of matter, consequent 

 ulceration, and, ultimately, loss of life." 



The following narrative comes instructive to us here. A 

 cart-horse, it was strongly suspected by its owner, had been 

 thrown down in a cart. Mr. Ma3^er did not see the case for some 

 months afterwards. The animal looked emaciated from pain and 

 irritation. The affected quarter had much wasted, and as the 

 animal moved along, by the application of the hand and ear, 

 could every now and then be perceived a sensation and sound as 

 though " the head of the femur chucked in and out of the aceta- 

 bulum." Mr. Mayer was of opinion that there was either a 

 dislocation of the hip, or a fracture of the neck of the thigh hone, 

 and that therefore the animal had better be destroyed. Post- 



