RUPTURE OF THE GASTROCNEMIUS MUSCLE. 377 



motion of the injured part. The horse was kept constantly tied up in 



his stall until the Regiment of First Life Guards marched which 



was on the 1st July — to Windsor; and subsequently was enforced 

 the same standing, unmoved, in the stable ; he not being suffered to 

 lie down or even to turn round in his stall. He was kept confined in 

 this manner for four months, and then had not lost either his lame- 

 ness or rolling gait of hock. Thinking that exercise might now prove 

 beneficial, he was on the 2d of October turned out to strawyard, 

 with his high-heeled shoe on. Five months from his being turned 

 out he was taken up into the stable in consequence of his having 

 become, without any further treatment, restored to a state of perfect 

 soundness. There was no longer any slackness of tendon; nor was 

 the roll the hock had in motion any longer perceptible. 



Solleysel has a chapter headed — "Of the Relaxation and 

 Straining of the Master-Sinew*;" which in a strange and remark- 

 able degree is illustrated by the case I have just narrated, as I 

 think the following extract will prove beyond the smallest doubt. 

 Explaining what he means by the " master sinew," Solleysel 

 commences by saying—" The hough is surrounded with a great 

 sinew, which is divided from the bone by a hollow space where 

 the vessignons (capped hocks) are usually situated. This is the 

 biggest and most visible sinew in a horse's body, which by reason 

 of a strain occasioned by hard riding, evil shoeing, going down a 

 steep place, a slip or fall, or too heavy burthen, may be relaxed, 

 and sometimes disturbed with so much violence that it becomes 

 moveable like an unbent bow-string. When a horse walks, the 

 leg seems to hang at the hough, because its motion is not regulated 

 by the master-sinew ; and you would even sometimes imagine that 

 the bone was broken. When a horse stands with his foot fixt on 

 the ground, the hough being extended in its natural posture, there 

 is so little appearance of any grief in the leg, that it seems perfectly 

 sound ; but if you handle the master-sinew, you will find it more 

 moveable than that of the other leg; and if you make the horse 

 mom his hinder parts, you will immediately perceive the sinew to 

 be as loose and infirm as if it were broken"* * * « Some 

 horses, contrary to the expectation of all who saw them, have been 

 * Op. Cit., Part II, Chap, xcix, p. 273. 



VOL. IV. 30 



