142 THE SUMMERING OP HUNTERS. 



difiiculty. During the time that the enlarging pro- 

 cess is going on, the part is more active within itself 

 mainly in its blood supply, and this alone will make 

 it wanner than common to the touch, and it requires 

 some amount of skill to determine the presence or 

 absence of inflammation. This more active state 

 is not necessarily inflammation at all, but the 

 boundary-line between it and the commencement of 

 inflammation is so fine that it is often extremel}^ 

 difficult to determine that inflammation does or does 

 not exist. When a part is enlarged (hypertrophied) 

 from over-use, then cessation of the over-use is fol- 

 lowed by lessening, in due course, of the enlarge- 

 ment. The thickened, horny skin of the blacksmith's 

 hand becomes fine and delicate in a few weeks should 

 he be laid up with illness or accident. The same 

 may be said of his biceps. A noble lord once asked 

 the writer to remove an enlargement on the outer 

 side of a hunter's fetlock at the end of a season. 

 On bringing the horse round in his stall it was seen 

 that the toe was slightly in-turned, and that the 

 shoe was causing the toe to be thus directed. Once 

 shoeing set the bearing surface of the foot and shoe 

 straight, and the enlargement in a month was no 

 more. In this case, had it been in the writer's 

 power to have removed this enlargement, the bearing 

 surface below remaining the same, the fetlo(;k might 

 have given way altogether. Here was an extra stay 

 put where an extra stay was needed. In our example 

 of the enlarged back sinews, and fetlock from the 



