280 



veterinarian j)ractitioner to repair. And this is not alone true of cas- 

 ualties which belong to the class of external and traumatic cases, hut 

 includes as well those of a kind perhaj^s nnore numerous, which may 

 result in lesions of internal parts, frequentl}^ the most serious and 

 obscure of all in their nature and effects. 



The horse is too important a factor in the practical details of human 

 life and fills too large a place in the business and i)leasure of the 

 world to justify any indifference to his needs and his physical com- 

 fort or neglect in respect to the preservation of his peculiar powers 

 for usefulness. In this connection it is hardly necessary to allude to 

 sentimental considerations of "humanitj^," so called — a word which 

 too often becomes a wretched misnomer when one recalls the neg- 

 lects, the mistreatment, the overtasking and other cruelties, in many 

 instances tortures, of which he becomes the helpless victim. In enter- 

 ing somewhat largely, therefore, upon a review of the subject, and 

 treating in detail of the causes, the symptoms, the i^rogress, the treat- 

 ment, the results, and the consequences of lameness in the horse, 

 we are performing a duty which needs no word of apology or justi- 

 fication. The subject explains and justifies itself, and is its own 

 vindication and illustration if any are needed. 



The function of locomotion is performed by the action of two prin- 

 cipal systems of organs, known in anatomical and physiological 

 terminology as pclssive and active, the muscles performing the active 

 and the bones the passive portion of the movement, the necessary 

 connection between the co-operating organism being effected by means 

 of a vital contact by which the muscle is attached to the bone at cer- 

 tain determinate xwints on the surface of the latter. These points of 

 attachment appear in tlie form of sometimes an eminence, sometimes 

 a depression, sometimes a border or an angle, or again as a mere 

 roughness, but each perfectly fulfilling its purpose, while the necessary 

 motion is provided for by the formation of the ends of the long bones 

 into the requisite articulations, joints, or hinges. Every motion is 

 the product of the contraction of one or more of the muscles, which, 

 as it acts upon the bony levers, gives rise to a movement of extension 

 or flexion, abduction or adduction, rotation or circumduction. The 

 movement of abduction is that which passes from and that of adduc- 

 tion that which passes toward the median line, or the center of the 

 body. The movements of flexion and extension are too well under- 

 stood to need defining. It is the combination and rapid alternations 

 of these movements which produce the different j)ostures and various 

 gaits of the living animal, and it is their interrui^tion and derange- 

 ment, from whatsoever cause, which constitutes the pathological con- 

 dition of lameness. 



A concise examination of the general anatomy of these organs, 

 however, must precede the consideration of the j^athologieal ques- 

 tions pertaining to the subject. A statement such as we have just 



