AS TO SOUNDNESS. 33 
off of the hair, to laying open of the joint and exposure 
of the bones. And yet, strange as it may appear to 
you, I can assure you that, throughout the whole horse 
universe, there is almost as strong an objection to the 
very mildest blemish at this part.as there is to the very 
worst. Why this widely-prevalent suspicion of “broken 
knees”? We ought never to altogether ignore a popular 
belief, and therefore not this. The degrees of injury to 
the knee, all alike known opprobriously as ‘‘ broken 
knee,” I will enumerate as they actually occur. 1. You 
may have mere chipping or clipping of the hair, with or 
without a bruise of the integuments beneath. 2. You 
may have the above, together with wounded skin. 
3. You may have the first two together, with a clean 
incision of the subcutaneous (cellular) tissue; or this 
tissue, instead of being simply incised, may be bruised 
and lacerated. 4. You may have the three foregoing 
conditions, together with exposure and wounding of the 
hard tissues forming the extensor tendons and their 
sheaths, as they pass in front of the knee. 5. You 
may have the knee joint itself laid open. Now as to 
your diagnosis of these respective conditions, beginning 
at the first. It is evident that, if the hair only is cut, 
it will grow again, and you would fail to find any evi- 
dence of the injury after two or three weeks. If, 
however, as moré frequently happens, the knee receives 
a blow at the time of the accident—although the skin 
may not be cut—the skin;may have been damaged and 
the hair bulbs so injured, that they for ever afterwards 
3 
