PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 619 



In 1884, Kay reported a horse that fell suddenly lame 

 from detachment of the plantar aponeurosis of three legs. 

 The inferior sesamoidean ligaments were detached and had 

 drawn shreds of bone from their insertions. Schraml re- 

 lated an identical case, and Schellhase one in which the in- 

 ferior sesamoid ligaments of the right fore-foot were de- 

 tached and had torn away spiculse of bone. Pendry testifies 

 to the detachments of the sesamoid ligaments of the left hind 

 leg, Blumentritt reports the case of a three-year-old colt 

 that suddenly became lame in one fore-leg without any par- 

 ticular cause. The fetlock was swollen, excessively ex- 

 tended, (dorsal flexion), and crepitated at every attempt to 

 support weight. At the autopsy the inferior sesamoidean 

 ligaments, including the middle and lateral ligaments, were 

 found completely and irregularly torn away from their at- 

 tachments, and holding pieces of bone varying from the size 

 of a millet seed to that of a pea. Degive and Hendricks re- 

 port some very curious facts which furnish evidence of long 

 standing alterations of the osseous and ligamentous sys- 

 tems. An eight-year-old horse exhibited a lameness from 

 which he apparently recovered, but when started in a short 

 race of two kilometers, he suddenly became lame and broke 

 down with complete detachment of the inferior sesamoidean 

 apparatuses of both hind legs. The phenomenon was ac- 

 companied by an enormous oozing, sanguineous engorge- 

 ment extending upward as far as the hock. 



An eight-year-old pony suddenly fell lame with a com- 

 plete detachment of the perforans tendons at their plantar 

 insertions of all four legs. In the hind feet, the plantar apo- 

 neuroses were detached from the os pedis along the entire 

 semilunar ridge, which was partly torn away, and adhered 

 to the end of the tendon in the form of perceptible osseous 

 fragments. The navicular bone, in consequence of the de- 

 tachment of its binding ligaments, was drawn backward 



