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CLASS III. 



Lameness arising from Disease of Muscle and Tendon, 

 AND OF Ligament unconnected with any Joint. 



In the category of the diseases of muscles and tendons we in- 

 clude those of the coverings of the one and the sheaths of the 

 other. Inflammation frequently spreads from faschia to muscle, 

 and from sheath to tendon, and vice versa; and in the case in 

 which it does not, yet is the muscle rendered incapable or fearful oi 

 action through disease of its faschia, the tendon through disease of 

 its sheath. The faschiae and sheaths are, in general, composed of 

 a tissue so different from the muscles and tendons or ligaments, 

 that, were I to class them in accordance with their composition, they 

 would be more naturally associated, under disease, with the burscE 

 than with the parts they are here connected. Frequent analogies 

 will be observed between the faschise and sheaths of tendons 

 in disease and the bursse, on whose diseases we have so recently 

 been engaged : indeed, the sheath of a tendon is little more than a 

 bursa thrown into an oblong or extended shape, save that in the one 

 instance the tendon runs through the cavity or plays within it, 

 while in the other it runs and plays over the sac. 



In many parts the faschice (or coverings of muscles) and the 

 thecce (or sheaths of tendons) are purely membranous in their com- 

 position ; in others, they are manifestly, in part or wholly, fibrous 

 or tendinous, requiring for the purposes they are wanted additional 

 strength and resisting power. This difference in tissue will modify 

 their diseased actions — will render inflammation and its conse- 

 quences in some respects unlike in the two textures. 



FASCHIiE and TheC^, being given for support and protection 

 to the parts they envelope, and being external to them — imme- 

 diately, indeed, in most places situate underneath the skin — are the 

 first parts to receive injury when once the skin is perforated or 

 even violently contused. In any forcible or extraordinary action, 

 flexion or extension, of the limbs, likewise, such parts are more 

 likely to be hurt than the muscles and tendons producing the 

 motion : hence tlie reason of *' sprains " in general consisting 



