376 RUPTURE OF THE GASTROCNEMIUS MUSCLE. 



well; but when he cam^ to trot, or even to turn, there was mani- 

 fest a giving way of the off hind leg, owing, to appearance, to a 

 want of contraction in the muscles bracing the tendo Achillis. 

 This induced me at once to suppose there must have happened 

 some rupture or laceration of the fibres of the gastrocnemius mus- 

 cle ; and yet my most careful examinations failed to detect any 

 muscular defalcation or defect thereabouts. In fact, T could make out 

 nothing more than unusual mobility of limb. I prescribed a high- 

 heeled shoe, quietude, a warm bath, and a dose of physic. 



On the 18th May — two days after the accident — the fore part 

 of the hock was observed to be considerably swollen ; and the 

 swelling was tense and warm to the feel, as though some sprain of 

 the part had taken place. In another two days this tumefaction 

 had begun to subside, so that by the 25th — a week from the acci- 

 dent happening — the hock was well again. 



The next time I' saw the horse walk out — which was on the 

 2d of June — I could not perceive any alteration in the action of the 

 limb, either for better or worse. There was evident the same 

 laxness or looseness in the tendo Achillis ; the same instability and 

 rolling movement in the limb as he walked along ; nay, the latter 

 was very observable in- the stall even : every time the horse's hind 

 quarters were turned from side to side there was manifest want of 

 bracing of the tendon in question. Instead of retaining that well- 

 known tensity and firmness of feel which it possesses so long as 

 the foot rests upon the ground, the tendon remains slack, and 

 absolutely wrinkles or serpentines in its course to the hock the 

 moment the limb is lifted off the ground. No other view, in my 

 mind, could be taken of the case than that expressed here in its 

 heading. It will be recollected that the two gastrocnemii muscles 

 cross each other in their course from the back of the stifle to the 

 hock, and that, in their composition, fleshy fibres are interlaced 

 with tendinous ones. Some of these had, possibly, given way in 

 the sudden and severe extension to which they had been subjected 

 in the fall ; but by no inspection or examination of other profes- 

 sional men as well as myself — to whom the case was shewn — 

 could discovery of the seat of lesion be ascertained. 



The TREATMENT OF THE CASE, -in addition to what had been 

 already done, consisted simply in forbidding all exercise or even 



