278 



of error wbich have come under our notice, in which parties have in- 

 sisted 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 modtis operandi and the true pathology of lameness, 

 but little remains to be done in order to reach an answer to the ques- 

 tion as to which side of the animal the lameness is seated, except to ex- 

 amine the patient while in action. We have already stated our reasons 

 for preferring the movement of trotting for this purpose. In conduct- 

 ing 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 oarefully 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 drops 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 de- 

 pressing 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 ofl' 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 often 

 require the exercise of a closer scrutiny, and draw upon all the resources 

 of the experienced practitioner to settle satisfactorily. That a horse is 

 lame in a given leg may be easily determined, but when it becomes 

 necessary to pronounce upon the query as to what part, Avhat region, 

 what structure, is affected, the easy part of the task is over, and the 

 more difficult and important, because more obscure portion of the in- 

 vestigation has commenced— except, of course, in cases of which the 

 features are too distinctly evident to the senses to admit of error. It 

 is true that by carefully noting the manner in which a lame leg is per- 

 forming its functions, and closely scrutinizing the motions of the whole 

 extremity, and especially of the various joints which enter into its 

 structure; by minutely examining every part of the limb; by observing 

 the outlines ; by testing the change, if any, in temperature and the state 



