LAMENESS.-ITS CAUSES AND TREATMENT. 



By Prof. A. LIAUTARD, M. D., V. M., 



Principal of the American Veterinary College, New York. 



The consideration of the usefulness and consequently of the value 

 to their human masters of those of the inferior animals which are 

 classed as beasts of burden ultimately aud naturally resolves itselt into 

 an inquiry into the condition of that special portion of their organism 

 which controls the function of locomotion, for it is only as living, or- 

 ganized locomotive machines that the horse, the camel, the ox, and their 

 burden-bearing companions are of practical value to man. This is 

 especially true in regard to the members of the equine family, the most 

 numerous and valuable of them all, and it naturally follows that with 

 the horse for a subject of discussion the special topic and leading theme 

 of inquiry will, by an easy lapse, become an inquest into the condition 

 and efficiency of his power for usefulness as a carrier or traveler. There 

 is a large amount of abstract interest in the study of thatendowmentof 

 the animal economy which enables its possessor to change his place at 

 will and convey himself whithersoever his needs or his moods may in- 

 cline him; but how much greater the interest that attaches to the sub- 

 ject when it becomes a practical and economic question aud includes 

 within its purview the various related topics which belong to the do- 

 mains of physiology, pathology, therapeutics, and the entire round of 

 scientific investigation into which it is finally merged as a subject for 

 medical and surgical consideration, in a word, of actual disease and 

 its treatment. It is not surprising that the intricate and complicated 

 apparatus of locomotion, with its symmetry aud harmony of move- 

 ment and the perfection and beauty of its details and adjuncts, should 

 be admiringly denominated by students of creative design and atten- 

 tive observers of nature and her marvelous contrivances aud adapta- 

 tions a living machine. 



The horse in a state of domesticity is of all the animal tribe the larg- 

 est sharer with his master in his liability to the accidents and dangers 

 which are among the incidents of civilized life. From his exposure to 

 the missiles of war on the battle-field to his chance of picking up a nail 

 from the city pavement there is no hour when he is not in danger of 



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