158 COMPENDIUM OF THE VETERINARY ART. 



ments, or tendons. Muscular strains consist 

 in an inflammation of the muscles or flesh, 

 occasioned by violent and sudden exertion. 

 When lioaments are the seat of this disease, 

 there is generally some part of them ruptured, 

 whereby very obstinate and sometimes perma- 

 nent lameness is produced : in this case also 

 inflammation is the symptom which first re- 

 quires our attention. But tendons are the 

 parts most frequently affected, particularly the 

 flexors of the fore leg, or back sinews, as they 

 are commonly termed. ■ Tendinous strains are 

 commonly supposed to consist in a relaxation 

 or preternatural extension of the tendon ; and 

 the remedies that have been recommended 

 are supposed to brace them up again. How- 

 ever plausible this opinion may be, it certainly 

 is very erroneous ; indeed it has been proved 

 l^y experiment, that tendons are neither elas- 

 tic nor capable of extension ; and from investi- 

 gating their structure and economy, we learn, 

 that were they possessed of these qualities,, 

 they would not answer the purpose for which 

 they were designed. From an idea that a 

 strain in the back sinews depends on a relaxr 

 ation of the tendons, many practitioners have 

 been apprehensive of danger from trie use of. 



