224 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



of the bones ; and hence these parts are peculiarly liable to 

 injury from the effects of blows and concussions. Here wo 

 find these little sacs especially numerous. It is another ex- 

 hibition of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator, which 

 the whole science of anatomy every-where reveals ; and, 

 again, we must admire the incomparable design and perfect 

 finish of every thing in Nature, all which is his handiwork. 



But what was intended as an instrumentality for the horse's 

 protection, under some circumstances, becomes the seat of 

 very great distress and suffering. Terrible inflammations set 

 up in the cellular tissue, the leg becomes dreadfully swollen, 

 and the skin pufts out all around the limb, as though it had 

 been stuffed and pressed out to its utmost tension. The leg 

 grows very lame and stiff, and, after a time, cracks appear, 

 from which exudes a whitish-yellow, watery matter, similar 

 in appearance to that which characterizes cracked heels. The 

 latter are generally, but not always, found in connection with 

 swelled legs, and very often the two diseases run into each 

 other. 



Sometimes the swelling of the legs comes on with aston- 

 ishing rapidity — perhaps in a single night — and then disap- 

 pears almost as suddenly. Such phenomena usually indicates 

 nothing more than sympathy with functional derangement in 

 Bome other part of the horse's frame. The disease has not 

 assumed its chronic form. What has yet occurred is only a 

 premonition of worse things to follow. If these warnings 

 were but understood and heeded, as they should be, a pain- 

 ful and obstinate disease might now easily be averted. 



" Misfortunes never come singly," says the old proverb, and 

 rarely does the history of this complaint tend to disprove its 

 truth. Swelled legs is so intimately associated with other dis- 

 eases that, in many an instance, it is an im*possibility to decide 

 which is the caug^ and which the effect. They are contin- 

 ually running into and aggravating each other. At the root 

 of all of them, however, the careful investigator may discover 

 one of two or three primary diseases, in the great majority 

 of cases. These are the diseases of the navicular and lower 



