LAMENESS: ITS CAUSES AND TBEATMENT. 365 



the loss of some proportion of tensile power which would naturally 

 follow the original attack in the muscles involved the lesion might 

 become a habitual weakness. 



Warm fomentations and douches with cold water will often pro- 

 mote permanent recovery, and liberty in a box stall or in the field 

 will in many cases insure constant relief. The use of a high-heeled 

 shoe is recommended by European veterinarians. The use of stimu- 

 lating liniments, with frictions, charges, or even severe blisters, may 

 be resorted to in order to prevent the repetition of the difficulty by 

 strengthening and toning up the parts. 



DISEASES OF MUSCLES AND TENDONS. 



SPRAINS. 



This term expresses a more or less complete laceration or yielding 

 of the fibers of the muscles, tendons, or the sheaths surrounding and 

 supporting them. The usual cause of a sprain is external violence, 

 such as a fall or a powerful exertion of strength, with following 

 symptoms of soreness, heat, swelling, and a suspension of function. 

 Their termination varies from simple resolution to suppuration, and 

 commonly fibrinous exudation difficult to remove. None of the 

 muscles or tendons of the body are exempt from liability to this 

 lesion, though naturally from their uses and the exposure of their 

 situation the extremities are more liable than other regions to become 

 their seat. The nature of the prognosis will be determined by a con- 

 sideration of the seat of the injury and the c9mplications likely to 

 arise. 



Treatment. — The treatment will resolve itself into the routine of 

 local applications, including warm fomentations, stimulating lini- 

 ments, counterirritation by blistering, and in some cases even firing. 

 Rest, in the stable or in a box stall, will be of advantage by promoting 

 the absorption of whatever fibrinous exudation may have formed, or 

 absorption may be stimulated by the careful, persevering application 

 of iodin in the form of ointments of various degrees of strength. 



There are many conditions in which not only the muscular and ten- 

 dinous structures proper are affected by a strain, but, by contiguity of 

 parts, the periosteum of neighboring bones may become involved, 

 with a complication of periostitis and its sequelae. 



LAMENESS OF THE SHOULDER. 



The frequency of the occurrence of lameness in the shoulder from 

 sprains entitles it to precedence of mention in the present category, 

 for, though so well covered with its muscular envelope, it is often 

 the seat of injuries which, from the complex structure of the region, 

 become difficult to diagnosticate with satisfactory precision and 

 facility. The flat bone which forms the skeleton of that region is 



