351 



a repetition of lighter strokes. In the latter case the parts ivill become 

 much swollen, hot and so painful to the touch that the motion of the 

 knee or the fetlock will be sufficiently disturbed to cause lameness of a 

 degree of severity corresponding wi! h that of the lesion. Following the 

 subsidence of this diffused and (Edematous swelling is sometimes the 

 formation of a tumor, either at the knee or the fetlock. This may be 

 soft at first or become so by degrees, with fluctuation, its contents being 

 at first extravasated blood, and later a serosity j or, if there has been a 

 sufficient degree of inflammation, it may become suppurative. The re- 

 sult of the fault of interfering may thus be exhibited, whether at the 

 knee or at the fetlock, as characterized by all the pathological condi- 

 tions which have appeared as accompaniments of capi^ed knee or capped 

 hock. If, in consequence of the force of the blow or blows, the inflam- 

 mation has been unusually severe, a mortification of the skin may be- 

 come one of the consequences, a slough taking place, succeeded by a 

 cutaneous ulcer on the inside of the fetlock or where the greater num- 

 ber of the original wounds are inflicted. If the interfering has been 

 often repeated it may be followed by another condition, which has been 

 considered in our remarks upon other affections. It is a plastic exuda- 

 tion or thickening of the parts, which are commonly said to ha.ve be- 

 come " callous," and the efiect of it is to destroy the regularity of the 

 outlines of the joint to an extent which constitutes a serious blemish, 

 which will be permanent, and according to the degree of the aberration 

 from the natural and symmetrical lines will inevitably depreciate the 

 commercial value of the animal. 



An animal in interfering may thus exhibit a range of symptoms 

 whicb, from the simplest form of a mere ''touching," may successively 

 assume the serious characters of an ugly cicatrix, a hard, plastic 

 swelling, or perhaps, as witnessed at the knee, of periostitis with its 

 sequela3. 



If a single and constantly recurring cause — a blow — be the starting 

 point in interfering, we may now consider the subject of the predispo- 

 sition which brings such serious results upon the suffering animal, and 

 the conditions which lead to and accompany it. These are numerous, 

 but the first in frequency and importance is peculiarity of conforma- 

 tion in the animals addicted to it. The first class will include horses 

 whose chest is narrow and whose legs do not stand straight and up- 

 right, but are crooJied and pigeon-toed in and cut. The second class 

 includes those whose legs are weak, either from youth or hard labor, 

 or from severe attacks of sickness. Another class is made up of those 

 having abnormally developed feet, or which have been badly shod with 

 unnecessarily wide or heavy shoes. Another class consists of those 

 that are affected with swollen fetlocks or chronic cedematous swellinsr 

 of the leg. Another is formed of animals with a peculiar action, as those 

 whose knee action is very high, and it is these that furnish most of the 

 cases of speedy cut. 



