274 



these elementary truths will probably be sufficient to facilitate a clear 

 uuderstauding of the requirements essential to the perfection and reg- 

 ularity which characterize the normal performance of the various move- 

 ments which result in the accomplishment of the action of locomotion. 

 So long as the bones, the muscles and tbeir tendons, the joints with 

 their cartilages, their ligaments and their synovial structure; the 

 nerves and the controlling influences which they exercise over all, with 

 the blood vessels which distribute to every part, however minute, the 

 vitalizing fluid which sustains the whole fabric in being and activity — 

 so loug as these various constituents and adjuncts of animal life pre- 

 serve their normal exemption from disease, traumatism and patholog- 

 ical change, the function of locomotion will continue to be performed 

 with perfection and efficiency. 



But on the other hand, let any element of disease become implanted 

 in one or several of the parts destined for combined action, any change 

 or irregularity of form, dimensions, location or action occur in any por- 

 tion of the apparatus — any obstruction or misdirection of vital power 

 take place, any interference with the order of the phenomena of normal 

 nature, any loss of liarmony and lack of balance be betrayed, and we 

 have in the result the condition of lameness. 



DEFINITION OF LAMENESS. 



P/i?/,9«o?o5ri/.— Comprehensively and universally considered, then, the 

 term lameness signifies any irregularity or derangement of the function 

 of locomotion irrespective of the cause which produced it or the de- 

 gree of its manifestation. However slightly or severely it may be ex- 

 hibited, it is all the same. The nicest observation may be demanded 

 for its detection, and it may need the most thoroughly trained powers 

 of discernment to identify and locate it, as in cases where the animal 

 is said to he fainting, tender, or to go sore. Or the patient may be so far 

 affected as to refuse utterly to use an injured leg, and under compulsory 

 motion keep it raised from the ground, and prefer to travel on three 

 legs rather than to bear any portion of his weight upon the afflicted 

 member. In these two extremes, and in all the intermediate degrees, 

 the patient is simply lame — pathognomonic minutiai being considered 

 and settled in a place of their own. 



These last two classifications of the condition of disabled function, of 

 simple lameness and lameness on three legs, are very easy of detection, 

 but the first or mere tenderness, or soreness, may be very difficult to 

 identify, and at times very serious results have followed from the ob- 

 scurity which has enveloped the early stages of the malady. For it 

 may easily occur that in the absence of the treatment which an early 

 correct diagnosis would have indicated, an insidious ailment may so take 

 advantage of the lapse of time as to root itself too deeply into the 

 economy to b ^ subverted, and become transformed into a disabling 

 chronic case, or possibly one that is incurable and fatal. Uence the im- 



