308 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
with phalangeal periostosis, which seem to have existed before them. 
But the primitive “ nerf-ferure”’ is often observed in animals with rapid 
gait, whose phalangeal structure is free from lesion. In these animals, it 
is exclusively produced by the excessive distension of the tendinous cords 
under the action of the weight of the body and with the force of the im- 
pression. And if phalangeal periostosis predisposes to “ nerf-férure,” 
the latter predisposes to the former. 
In a paper presented in 1844, before the Société Centrale de Médecine 
Vétérinaire, Prudhomme, from a number of observations gathered at the 
Alfort clinics, defended the statement 
that the carpal band was affected 
in two-thirds of the cases, and that the 
tendinous lesions were observed only in 
the other third. Bouley and all of his 
day accepted the opinion of Prudhomme. 
For them, the suspensory ligament 
was never affected, on account of its 
great elasticity. It was said that, 
when the leg returns to rest on the 
ground, the force, representing the 
weight of the body, transmitted to the 
summit of the os suffraginis had for 
result to lower the phalangeal lever; 
the suspensory ligament, very elastic, 
thanks to the muscular fibres that it 
contains, could yield without being 
injured ; but the tendons, inextensible, 
would tear if the reactions were too 
powerful, and the thinner band, less 
resisting than the tendons, would be 
most frequently injured. Carefully 
studied observations (Barrier, Siedam- 
grotzky, Comény, Jacoulet, Poy) have 
shown that the alterations of the sus- 
pensory ligament are not as rare as 
they were thought to be. Indeed, 
the lesions of “ nerf-férure ” may occur 
in all the desmo-tendinous parts of the cannon, fetlock, and coronet—thatis, 
upon the suspensory ligament, the perforans, perforatus, the carpal, tarsal 
radial and calcanean bands, the metacarpo-phalangeal sheath, the reén- 
forcing bands sent by the suspensory ligament to the anterior extensor of 
the phalanges, the inferior sesamoid ligaments, the inserting branches of 
Fig. 72.—Suspensory ligament, car- 
pal band, perforans and perforatus, 
