SHOULDER LAMENESS. 237 



joint is found discoloured and wasted, especially when lameness 

 has been of long standing." Such is, or was, Leblanc's account 

 of the post-mortem appearances. They evidently apply, we should 

 say, rather to chronic shoulder lameness than to common or recent 

 disease. 



The Symptoms of Shoulder Lameness are — 1st and nega- 

 tively (in the absence of signs of other lameness) that the horse 

 neither points with the foot of the lame limb, nor usually stands 

 upon it differently from what he does upon the sound leg; 2dly, 

 and positively, that, in trotting, he displays a movement in the 

 fore leg different from the action of a horse lame in the foot or 

 elsewhere. 



SOLLEYSELL was perfectly well acquainted with the latter : his 

 description includes pretty well all observation since his time has 

 taught us concerning it. His name for the ailment was " shoulder- 

 wrench," " shoulder-plight," or " shoulder-sprain." And he tells us, 

 " 'tis hard to discover where the lameness is if you did not see 

 hinn get it, and if the horse does not cast his leg outwards or make 

 a circle with it, instead of advancing it straight forward ; for 

 that is almost an infallible sign that the grief is m his shoulder.'' 



Pain or inability evidently intimidates or prevents the horse 

 from lifting and projecting the lame fore limb in the manner and 

 with the freedom he does the sound one — " he cannot get it 

 forward," as horse-folks say ; i. e. forward in a direct line without 

 pain, to avoid which he, as Solleysell has truly described it, 

 " makes a circle with it," brings it forward with a sort of sweep, 

 and perhaps some trail of the toe upon the ground as well. 



But it may be endeavoured to elicit pain by pressing or squeezing 

 or moving about the shoulder. Solleysell tells us to " take hold 

 of the fore limb, and make it go backwards and forwards, that we 

 nriay perceive how the shoulder can be moved, and whether or not 

 the horse does not complain of pain or shrink while such motions 

 are being performed." All this is usually done nowadays, and by 

 veterinarians ; though we must confess our diminished faith in 

 tests like these compared with such as are afforded by action, and 

 the absence of any cause or suspicion for lameness elsewhere. 



Diagnosis. Strange as it may appear to persons out of the 



