SECTION II. 

 DIAGNOSTIC PRINCIPLES. 



To observe attentively is to remember distinctly. — Poe. 



Before treatment is administered in constitutional disturb- 

 ances resulting in disease, cause is logically sought; so, in 

 order to handle effectively any case of lameness, it is necessary 

 first to discover the source of the trouble and contributing con- 

 ditions affecting the structures. Hence, diagnostic ability is 

 the prime requisite; and a thorough knowledge of pathologic 

 anatomy or of surgical technic is of little value if this knowledge 

 is not applied with the insight of the trained diagnostician. 



The cruel and unnecessary methods employed by those un- 

 trained for diagnostics, cannot be too vigorously condemned. For 

 instance, the application of an active and depilating vesicant 

 upon a large area on the gluteal or crural region, in a case 

 where the practitioner "guesses" the condition to be one of 

 "hip lameness," constitutes an exposition of gross ignorance, 

 and at once stamps the perpetrator as a crude bungler without 

 scientific insight whose works are no credit to his profession. 

 How much better it would be, if the practitioner does not see 

 fit to call in a competent consultant, to prescribe a suitable agent 

 to be given internally, and to recommend complete rest for the 

 subject. 



In establishing a diagnosis in such cases, the student or prac- 

 titioner seldom has recourse to laboratory assistance, and his 

 work is done by means of physical examination ; therefore, a 

 thorough knowledge and a clear conception of the physiology 

 of locomotion are essential. Memorizing nosological facts with- 

 out an understanding of underlying principles is of no more 

 practical benefit for qualification as a diagnostician in cases of 

 lameness, than is the employment of similar methods in the 

 study of theory and practice. A knowledge of the dosage of 

 drugs does not in itself qualify one as being competent to ad- 

 minister such therapeutic agents to a proper effect. How 



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