LAMENESS: ITS CAUSES AND TREATMENT. 



By A. LiAUTAKD, M. D., V. M., 



Principal of the American Veterinary College, Neiv Yorlc. 



[Revised in 1903 by John R. Mohler, A. M., V. M. D.] 



It is as living, organized, locomotive machines that the horse, camel, 

 ox, and their burden-bearing companions are of practical value to 

 man. Hence the consideration of their usefulness and consequent 

 value to their human masters ultimately and naturally resolves itself 

 into an inquiry concerning the condition of that special portion of 

 their organism which controls their function of locomotion. This is 

 especially true in regard to the members of the equine family, the 

 most numerous and valual)le of all the beasts of burden, and it nat- 

 urally follows that with the horse for a subject of discussion the 

 special topic and leading theme of inquiry will, by an easy lapse, 

 become an inquest into the condition and efficienc}" of his power for 

 usefulness as a carrier or traveler. There is a large amount of 

 abstract interest in the stud}^ of that endowment of the animal econ- 

 omy which enables its possessor to change his place at will and convey 

 himself whithersoever his needs or his moods may incline him; but 

 how much greater the interest that attaches to the subject when it 

 becomes a practical and economic question and includes within its 

 purview the various related topics which belong to the domains of 

 physiology, pathology, therapeutics, and the entire round of scientific 

 investigation into which it is finally merged as a subject for medical 

 and surgical consideration — in a word, of actual disease and its treat- 

 ment! It is not surprising that the intricate and complicated appa- 

 ratus of locoriiotion, with its symmetry and harmony of movement 

 and the perfection and beauty of its details and adjuncts, should, by 

 students of creative design and attentive observers of nature and her 

 marvelous contrivances and adaptations, be admiringly denominated a 

 livioig inacldne. 



The horse in a state of domesticity is of all the animal tribe the 

 largest sharer with his master in his liability to the accidents and dan- 

 gers which are among the incidents of civilized life. From his expo- 

 sure to the missiles of war on the battlefield to his chance of picking 

 up a nail from the city pavement there is no hour when he is not in 

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