lameness: its causes and tkeatment. 299 



not in danger of incurring injuries which for their repair may de- 

 mand the best skill of the veterinary practitioner. This is true not 

 alone of casualties which belong to the class of external and trau- 

 matic cases, but includes as well those of a kind perhaps more 

 numerous, which may result in lesions of internal parts, frequently 

 the most serious and obscure of all in their nature and effects. 



The horse is too important a factor in the practical details of 

 human life and fills too large a place in the business and pleasure of 

 the world to justify any indifference to his needs and physical com- 

 fort or neglect in respect to the preservation of his peculiar powers 

 for usefulness. In entering somewhat largely, therefore, upon a 

 review of the subject, and treating in detail of the causes, the symp- 

 toms, the progress, the treatment, the results, and the consequences 

 of lameness in the horse, we are performing a duty which needs no 

 word of apology or justification. The subject explains and justifies 

 itself, and is its own vindication and illustration, if any are needed. 



The function of locomotion is performed by the action of two prin- 

 cipal systems of organs, known in anatomical and physiological 

 terminology as passive and active, the muscles performing the active 

 and the bones the passive portion of the movement. The necessary 

 connection between the cooperating parts of the organism is effected 

 by means of a vital contact by which the muscle is attached to the 

 bone at certain determinate points on the surface of the latter. 

 These points of attachment appear sometimes as an eminence, some- 

 times as a depression, sometimes a border or an angle, or again as a 

 mere roughness, but each perfectly fulfilling its purpose, while the 

 necessary motion is provided for by the formation of the ends of the 

 long bones into the requisite articulations, joints, or hinges. Every 

 motion is the product of the contraction of one or more of the 

 muscles, which, as it acts upon the bony levers, gives rise to a move- 

 ment of extension or flexion, abduction or adduction, rotation or cir- 

 cumduction. The movement of abduction is that which passes from 

 and that of adduction that which passes toward the median line, or 

 the center of the body. The movements of flexion and extension are 

 too well understood to need defining. It is the combination and 

 rapid alterations of t^ese movements which produce the different 

 postures and various gaits of the animal, and it is their interruption 

 and derangement, from whatever causes, which constitute the patho- 

 logical condition known as lameness. 



A concise examination of the general anatomy of these organs, 

 however, must precede the consideration of the pathological ques- 

 tions pertaining to the subject. A statement, such as we have just 

 given, containing only the briefest hint of matters which, though not 

 necessarily in their ultimate scientific minutias, must be clearly com- 

 prehended in order to acquire a symmetrical and satisfactory view of 



