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relieves itself by leaning, as it were, on the right, the latter becomes, 

 consequently, i)ractically heavier, and the mass of the body will 

 incline or settle upon that side. Lameness of the left side, therefore, 

 means dropping or settling on the right, and vice versa. We emphasize 

 this statement and insist upon it, the more from the frequency of the 

 instances of error which have come under our notice, in which parties 

 have insisted upon their view that the leg which is the seat of the 

 lameness is that upon which he drops, and which the animal is usually 

 supposed to favor. 



HOW TO DETECT THE SEAT OF LAMENESS. 



Properl}^ appreciating the remarks which have preceded, and fully 

 comprehending the modus operandi and the true pathology of lame- 

 ness, but little remains to be done in order to reach an answer to the 

 question as to which side of the animal the lameness is seated, except 

 to examine the patient while in action. We have already stated our 

 reasons for preferring the movement of trotting for this i^urpose. In 

 conducting such an examination the animal should be unblanketed, 

 and held by a plain halter in the hands of a man who knows how to 

 manage his paces, and preference should be given to a hard road for 

 the trial. He is to be examined from various positions — from before, 

 from behind, and from each side. Watching him as he approaches, 

 as he recedes, and as he passes by, the observer should carefully 

 study that important action which we have spoken of as the dropping 

 of the body upon one extremity or the other, and this can readily 

 be detected by attending closely to the motions of the head and of 

 the hip. The head droiDS on the same side on which the mass of the 

 body will fall, dropping towards the right when the lameness is in 

 the left fore-leg, and the hip dropping in posterior lameness, also 

 on the sound leg, the reversal of the conditions, of course, producing 

 reversed effects. In other words, when the animal in trotting exhibits 

 signs of irregularity of action,- or lameness, and this irregularity is 

 accompanied by dropping or nodding the head, or depressing the hip 

 on the right side of the body, at the time the feet of the right side 

 strike the ground, the horse is lame on the left side. If the dropping 

 and nodding are on the near side the lameness is on the off side. 



But in a majority of cases the answer to the first question relating 

 to the lameness of a horse is, after all, not a very difficult task. 

 There are two other problems in the case more diflficult of solution 

 and which often require the exercise of a closer scrutiny, and draw 

 upon all the resources of the experienced practitioner to settle satis- 

 factorily. That a horse is lame in a given leg may be easily deter- 

 mined, but when it becomes necessary to pronounce upon the query 

 as to what part, what region, what structure, is affected, the easy 

 part of the task is ovei*, and the more difficult and important, because 

 more obscure portion of the investigation has commenced — except, of 



