I 



OR CONTRACTED SINEWS. 569 



medical errors, after fifty years pra6lice, not 

 only recommends to expofe the body to cold 

 air during the operation of a purge, but even 

 anfwers for the innocence of the cold-bath at 

 that time. 



A tendon beino; endowed with the mufcular 

 power of contra6lion and dilatation (which I 

 have inRanced, becaufe Ofmer pretends to 

 argue from its loofe uncontrafted figure) or 

 rather fuch being its natural offices, muft of 

 courfe be liable to injury from excefs in either 

 of thefe, and the injury muft confequently pro- 

 duce a defeft of elafticity ; nor does that necef- 

 farily prefuppofe elongation, fince there is a fpe- 

 cies of elafticity not at all conne6led with elon- 

 gation, for inftance, that of whale-bone and 

 wood. But I neither affert that the tendons of 

 horfes are elongated by a ftrain, nor grant its 

 impoffibility : the main tendons may bd^fecured 

 from that by their pofition, and when we fee a 

 race-horfe which is broken down, with his fetlock 

 nearly upon the ground, it may be probably the 

 ligaments and fibres only which are lengthened, 

 and yet, with equal probability, the tendons 

 themfelves may be elongated in their appor- 

 tionate degree ; that they become foftened, and 

 lofe part of their tenfenefs and contraftile force, 

 under thefe circumftances, any one may dif- 

 cover who has feeling in his fingers ; and this is 

 all which is contended for. 



Strains 



