KNEE JOINT LAMENESS. 247 



''Another point of difference may be adverted to, which is, that 

 in 'carpitis' a horse will hang heavy on the bit ; and if a false step 

 is made, it is recovered from with difficulty. This will be accounted 

 for by the previous observations ; and when the toe strikes any 

 obstacle, which is very apt to occur, it increases the lameness of 

 that limb, but which gradually subsides to the previous state. In 

 navicularthritis the reverse of these are manifested. 



" There is one other point of difference; that is, in the manner in 

 going down or up rising ground. In carpitis the lameness is in- 

 creased in descending and mitigated on ascending ground; in navi- 

 cularthritis this is reversed, arising from the same causes as before 

 adverted to in speaking of the canter. 



" It may appear as an objection, considering there is so much 

 lameness, that there is not a great degree of external appearance 

 of disease, as is seen in its analogous disease spavin; but that 

 objection will vanish when we consider how much sooner a horse 

 becomes unfit for use from a lameness in the fore than in the hind 

 limbs; and therefore when a horse lame before is considered to 

 be, from whatever cause, irremediably lame, he is not again used 

 as a hackney, but is sent to harness, and thus the extra weight of 

 a rider being got rid of, and also, in most instances, the pace being 

 slower and more equal in harness than in saddle, another fruitful 

 aggravation of disease is got rid of or diminished, while the con- 

 verse of this holds with regard to spavin ; for horses that are too 

 lame from the latter disease to be pleasant in harness, are so in 

 moderate use in saddle ; but in either case the same amount of 

 relief to the affected part cannot, by the changing from one kind 

 of labour to another, be given to the diseases of the hind as to the 

 fore limb. 



" The diagnostic Characters of the disease affecting one leg 

 only are the same as exist in both ; but from the contrast which 

 is afforded by the sound limb, these are much more recognizable 

 than where both are affected; to these, however, one other charac- 

 teristic must be added, the step of the lame leg being rather longer 

 than that of the sound limb. The reason for this length of step 

 I have before given, but that it should now exceed in one leg 

 over the other arises from the necessity of stepping more quickly 



