186 TAKALYSIS, OR TALSY. 



Kuw comes a very important question. ^Vliat connection is tliere be- 

 tween stringhalt and the supposed value or deterioration of the horse ? 

 Some experienced practitioners have maintained that it is a pledge of more 

 than usual muscular power. It is a common saying that ' there never was 

 a horse with stringhalt that was incapable of doing the work required 

 of him.' Most certainly we continually meet Avith horses having stringhalt 

 that pleasantly discharge all ordinary, and even extraordinary, service ; 

 and although stringhalt is excess or ii-regular distribution of nervous 

 power, it at least shows the existence of that power, and the capability in 

 the muscular system of being acted upon by it. Irregular distributions of 

 vital energy are not, however, things to be desired. They argue disease 

 and derangement of the system, and a predisposition to greater derange- 

 ment. They materially interfere with the speed of the horse. This was 

 decidedly the case with regard to the poor fellow whose history has been 

 related. 



Stringhalt is decided unsotindness. It is an irregular supply of the 

 nervous influence, or a diseased state of the nervous or muscular system, 

 or both. It prevents ns from suddenly and' at once calling upon the horse 

 for the full exercise of his speed and power, and therefore it is zmsound- 

 n ess ; but, generally speaking, it so little interferes with the services of 

 the animal, that, although an unsoundness, it would not weigh a great deal 

 against other manifest valuable qualities. 



PARALYSIS, OR PALSY. 



The stream of nervous influence is sometimes stopped, and thence 

 results palsy. In the human being general palsy sometimes occurs. 

 The whole body — every organ of motion and of sense — is paralj^sed. The 

 records of our practice, however, do not aS"ord ixs a single instance of this ; 

 but of partial paralysis there are several cases, and most tintractable ones 

 they Avere. The cause of thena may be altogether unknoA\Ti. In the 

 human being there is yet another distinction, Hemiplegia and Paraplegia. 

 In the former the affection is confined to one side of the patient ; in the 

 latter the posterior extremity on both sides is afiected. Few cases of 

 hemiplegia occur in the horse, and they are more manageable than those 

 of paraplegia ; but if the affection is not removed, they usually degenerate 

 into paraplegia before the death of the animal. It would appear singular 

 that this should be the most common form of palsy in the human being, 

 and so rarely seen in the quadruped. There are some considerations, 

 however, that will partly account for this. Palsy in the horse usually 

 proceeds from injury of the spinal cord ; and that cord is more developed 

 and far larger than in the human being. It is more exposed to injury, and 

 to injury that wiU affect not one side only, but the whole of the cord. 



Palsy in the horse, although sometimes attacking the fore extremities, 

 is far more frequently met with in the hind ones. The reason of this is 

 plain. The fore limbs are attached to the trunk by a dense mass of highly 

 clastic substance. This was placed between the shoulder-blade and the 

 ribs for the purpose of preventing that concussion, which would be an- 

 noying and even dangerous to the horse or his rider. Except in conse- 

 quence of a fall, there is scarcely the possibihty of any serious injury to 

 the anteiior portion of the spine. The case is very different with regai-d 

 to the hind limbs and their attachment to the trunk ; they are necessarily 

 liable to many a shock and sprain injurious to the spine and its contents. 

 The loins and the back oftenest exhibit the lesions of palsy, because there 

 are some of the most violent muscular efforts, and there is the greatest 

 movement and the least support. It may, consequently, be taken as an 



