452 PEELTMTTfART REMARKS. 



Causes of Woui^ds aiid Injuries. — Before entering 

 upon a special account of each particular form of injury, a few 

 remarks in relation to the causes which are productive of injury 

 to the horse may prove of advantage to the reader. 



Causes productive of disturbance to, and within the animal 

 economy, such as are now implied, admit of being arranged 

 into two orders — mechanical and chemical. The principal me- 

 chanical causes are kicks, blows, punctures, striking one limb 

 against the other during the act of locomotion, falls, concus- 

 sions, injuries from shoeing, and a hundred others of a similar 

 character. 



Chemical Causes are of a very limited class ; that is, so 

 far as this class of causes are allowed to operate perniciously 

 upon the horse. Occasionally a veterinary surgeon is called 

 upon to afford assistance to one of the equine class, which by 

 some means or other, seldom very clearly ascertained, may have 

 fallen into a wet lime pit, or upon whose limbs a carboy of 

 nitric or sulphuric acid may have been spilt. Beyond an occa- 

 sional case of this nature, one rarely, however, hears of horses 

 suffering violently from the operation of chemical causes of a 

 direct character. 



Mechanical Causes. — For the convenience of pointing 

 out certain causes of injury of this class, it is proposed to have 

 a more limited classification, or rather it is proposed to divide 

 this class of causes into sub-classes ; the object in doing so is, 

 that I may the more efficiently point out defects which are not 

 only numerous, but are the most fruitful source of accidents 

 falling under the cognizance of the veterinary surgeon ; and if 

 by pursuing this course I am the means of inducing those who 

 are the owners of, or the attendants upon, these animals, to 



