KNEE JOINT LAMENESS. 245 



ail articulation of so much importance in progression, the condition 

 it is in, sound or unsound, perfect or imperfect, cannot fail to be 

 matter to us of the greatest consideration. It was formerly said, 

 *Mio foot, no horse;" we with equal reason say, "no knee, no 

 horse :" the integrity of the knee being quite of as much conse- 

 quence for action as that of the foot is for tread. 



After attentively perusing Mr. Cherry's two papers, few reflec- 

 tive veterinarians will, we think, feel disposed to differ with us, 

 when we assert that we have all been too much in the habit of 

 referring the seat of lameness, at all obscure in its nature, to the 

 foot ; and that henceforth we may have reason to pay a great deal 

 more attention than we have done to the knee. The chief diffi- 

 culty we anticipate in this investigation of knee and foot together 

 is what we may experience in forming a correct diagnosis — to say, 

 in many cases, whether the proximate cause of the lameness is 

 really in the foot or in the knee ; a difficulty not a little enhanced 

 by the curious fact mentioned by Mr. Cherry, of heat sometimes 

 being felt in the foot when the seat of lameness all the time is the 

 knee. Nothing short of close and accurate observation, ratified by 

 experience, can surmount difficulties like these; and we doubt not, 

 now that the attention of veterinary practitioners is called to the 

 subject, that it will in time receive all this in the fullest measure. 



" Under the term ' carpitis' (or knee joint lameness)," says 

 Mr. Cherry, " T propose to describe a disease of the knee joint, 

 which in its commonly existing form has never, as far as I am 

 aware, been specifically described. 



" The knee joint itself has been considered to be exempt from 

 disease, unless from the infliction of direct injury : indeed, so far 

 did the late Professor Coleman carry his opinion on this subject, 

 that he used to assert, in the most positive manner, that the knee 

 was never the seat of lameness. 



"The old farriers described a lameness as existing, not referrible 

 either to the foot, fetlock, or shoulder, to which, from the peculiarity 

 of the gait, they gave the name of ' chest-founder.' From the very 

 term employed, it is manifest that they were in ignorance of the 

 seat and cause of such lameness. This term has been discarded 

 by the modern veterinarian as ' barbarously ignorant;' but from its 



