INFLAMMATORY AFFECTIONS 263 



the body. Progress thus takes place in a succession of 

 movements 'halt hobble/ 'half jump.' 



Painful though this may appear, progress is still more 

 difficult when the hind-feet alone are diseased. Afraid that, 

 in placing his fore-members freely forward, he will add to 

 the pain in his hind, the walk takes place in a series of 

 extremely short steps, with the feet more or less closely 

 approximated. The gait is thus rendered extremely awk- 

 ward, and Zundel, by saying that ' the animal appears as if 

 treading on sharp needles.' most fitly describes it. 



Movement with all four feet affected, though less awk- 

 v.ard in appearance, is doubtless more painful than in either 

 of the other conditions. Here the animal can hardly be in- 

 duced to shift his position at all. Only by flogging, and 

 that severe, can he be made to go forward. When so 

 induced to move, the agonizing pain to which the patient is 

 subjected may be gathered by noting his countenance and 

 manner of progression. 



With each movement forward, muscular tremors affect 

 the limbs; each step is short, jerky, and convulsive; the 

 respirations and pulse are almost immediately greatly 

 quickened, and the lower lip is hung pendulous, and moved 

 almost unconsciously up and down with a flapping noise 

 against the upper. A patchy perspiration breaks out about 

 the body and quarters, and the tail is outstretched and 

 quivering. At the same time the lines of the face become 

 drawn, the commissures of the lips pulled upwards, the 

 eves staring and haggard, the eyelids puckered, the nostrils 

 extended, and the whole expression indicative of the intense 

 and agonizing pain of the disease. 



One can perhaps better give one's client some vague idea 

 of the patient's suffering by likening the pain to the throb- 

 bing sensation of a festered finger-nail. Tell him that each 

 hoof of the horse is similarly, or. of anything, more deli- 

 otely, constructed, that in each foot the same process of 

 ' festering ' is going on, and that upon them the animal has 

 perforce to stand. 



As one might expect, the position of greatest ease is the 



