304 DISEASES OF THE HORSE, 
This last condition of disabled function—lameness on three legs— 
and many of the lower degrees of simple lameness are very easy of 
detection, but the first, or mere tenderness or soreness, may be very 
difficult to identify, and at times very serious results have followed 
from the obscurity which has enveloped the early stages of the malady. 
For it may easily occur that in the absence of the treatment which an 
early correct diagnosis would have indicated, an insidious ailment 
may so take advantage of the lapse of time as to root itself too deeply 
into the economy to be subverted, and become transformed into a 
disabling chronic case, or possibly one that is incurable and fatal. 
Hence the impolicy of depreciating early symptoms because they are 
not accompanied with distinct and pronounced characteristics, and 
from a lack of threatening appearances inferring the absence of 
danger. The possibilities of an ambush can never be safely ignored. 
An extra caution costs nothing, even if wasted. The fulfillment of 
the first duty of a practitioner, when introduced to a case, is not 
always an easy task, though it is too frequently expected that the 
diagnosis, or “what is the matter” verdict, will be reached by the 
quickest and surest kind of an “instantaneous process” and a sure 
prognosis, or “how will it end,” guessed at instanter. 
Usually the discovery that the animal is becoming lame is compar- 
atively an easy matter to a careful observer. Such a person will 
readily note the changes of movements which will have taken place 
in the animal he has been accustomed to drive or ride, unless they 
are indeed slight and limited to the last degree. But what is not 
always easy is the detection, after discovering the fact of an existing 
irregularity, of the locality of its point of origin, and’ whether its 
seat be in the near or off leg, or in the fore or the hind part of the 
body. These are questions too often wrongly answered, notwith- 
standing the fact that with a little careful scrutiny the point may be 
easily settled. The error, which is too often committed, of pronounc- 
ing the leg upon which the animal travels soundly as the seat of the 
lameness, is the result of a misinterpretation of the physiology of 
locomotion in the crippled animal. Much depends upon the gait with 
which the animal moves while under examination. The act of walk- 
ing is unfavorable for accurate observation, though, if the animal 
walks on three legs, the decision is easy to reach. The action of gal- 
loping will often, by the rapidity of the muscular movements and 
their quick succession, interfere with a nice study of their rhythm, 
and it is only under some peculiar circumstances that the examina- 
tion can be safely conducted while the animal is moving with that 
gait. It is while the animal is trotting that the investigation is made 
with the best chances of an intelligent decision, and it is while mov- 
ing with that gait, therefore, that the points should be looked for 
which must form the elements of the diagnosis. 
