HOW TO DETECT LAMENESS. 283 



may be established by observing the manifestations attending a single 

 alteration in the balancing of the body. In health the suj^port and 

 equilibrium of that mass of the body which is borne by the fore legs 

 is equalized, and j^asses by regular alternations from the right to the 

 left side, and vice versa. But if the left leg, becoming disabled, 

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

 consequently, practically 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 empha- 

 size this statement and insist uj^on 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. 



Properly 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 purpose. 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 the trial should always be made over a firm, 

 hard road whenever such is available. He is to be examined from 

 various positions — from before, from behind, and from each side. 

 Watching him as he approaches, as he passes by, and as he recedes, 

 the observer should carefully study that important action which we 

 have spoken of as the dropping of the hody 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 drops on the same side 

 on which the mass of the body will fall, dropping toward the right 

 when the lameness is in the left fore leg, and the hip dropping in pos- 

 terior lameness, also on the sound leg, the reversal of the conditions^ 

 of course, producing reversed effects. In other words, when the ani- 

 mal 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 difficult of solution and which 



