STRINGHALT. 385 



unused horse. It is never cured, either by nature or art : once 

 stringhalt, for ever stringhalt. As to the description of horse 

 commonly affected with stringhalt, the well-bred animal of high 

 nervous temperament, the fiery horse, " the devil to go," as he is 

 phrased, standing in general estimation as the " capital" horse, is 

 peculiarly obnoxious to the disorder. The approach of the disease, 

 I believe, in general, to be gradual ; though sometimes it comes on 

 suddenly. Mr. Booth, of Bradnoss, in The VETERINARIAN for 

 February, 1842, mentions an instance of ** stringhalt in a cow." 

 It affected " the hind leg of the milking side." Mr. Booth perti- 

 nently adds, " Cows are subject sometimes to an awkward man- 

 ner of walking with their hind legs, from having large (distended) 

 udders, &c. But this is a clear case of string halt.'' 



Seat and Nature. — From stringhalt being denoted by an 

 action evidently involuntary or convulsive, the animal manifestly 

 having lost all control over the limb from the moment it has 

 quitted the ground, it seemed but natural to refer the affection to 

 the nervous system. This was done by me, when writing on the 

 same subject in my " Lectures," in the year 1823. The words I 

 then made use of, were — " Such writers as offer any opinion on its 

 nature, suppose it to be a muscular affection, mistaking, I conceive, 

 the effect for the cause. I choose rather to refer its seat to the 

 spinal marroiv, or to the nervous trunks passing between it and 

 the affected muscles : an opinion I was first led to adopt from 

 having observed a broken-backed horse exhibit all the character- 

 istic signs of stringhalt; which, in his case, was clearly only an 

 accompanying syinptom of the former disease. It was stated (in 

 the foregoing part of this Lecture) that section or compression of 

 the spinal marrow paralyzed muscles, and that irritation of it con- 

 vulsed them. Now, we know that many cases of broken back 

 terminate in palsy. If this be true, why should not others be 

 productive of stringhalt ; since one arises from compression, while 

 the other is merely the result of irritation 1 It is not, however, 

 necessary for a broken-back to be present ; for any other cause of 

 irritation would, we apprehend, induce the disease. Horses are 

 very subject to injuries of the loins — much more so than we seem 

 to be aware of — from being suddenly stopped or turned, or from 



VOL. IV. 3d 



