96 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 
When a tendon and any synovial sheath through 
which it glides suffers injury, which sets up inflamma- 
tion, however slight, the first effect of the inflammation 
is to arrest the function of the synovial membrane-— 
that is to say, to arrest the secretion of joint oil—and 
we feel the parts swollen, hot and tender to the touch; 
and just’as an engineer on feeling a shaft revolving in a 
collar getting hot would stop his engine, and apply cold 
water to cool the shaft, and re-oil the collar before again 
starting the engine, so have we to take means to let the 
machine rest, and subdue the inflammation which has 
arrested the secretion of oil. In our case, now, we have 
to follow the example of the engineer, who goes from 
time to time to feel the temperature of the various 
shafts which are revolving through collars, to feel that 
they are cool, by which he infers that the collar is 
well oiled. By the term well oiled an engineer means— 
1. Sufficiency of oil; 
2. Oil of good quality ; 
3. Covering evenly the entire surface of the shaft 
which is grasped by the coliar. 
The practical horseman does the same. ‘The groom, 
on removing the leg bandages in a morning, runs his 
hand slowly and carefully down the back of the fore leg, 
from above the knee to the pastern, to feel that the 
synovial sheaths (collars) are cool. Perhaps the previous 
evening, when he put on the bandages, the synovial | 
apparatus was hot, and a little swollen from overwork ; 
but a night’s rest and the gentle pressure of his bandage __ 
Stbeaewd 
deaargesees 
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