LAMENESS. 333 
the pains by which it must be accompanied! Yet who has been much 
among stables, and has not witnessed many such sights ? 
It requires small knowledge to recognize those lamenesses to which 
the heavy breed of horses is particularly exposed. Agony, being ex- 
cessive, always obliges this species of animal to indicate the limb, or 
to attract the attention of the spectator toward it. These creatures, 
when thus affected, if compelled to move, hop onward upon three legs ; 
the weight is never thrown upon the foot which has been severely 
injured. 
Illustrating this subject is the annexed 
figure of a horse which has been hurt 
upon the off fore foot; the figure is sup- 
posed to be desirous of progressing, or to 
be in the act of bringing the hind limbs 
forward. The entire weight having for 
a certain space to rest upon a single sup- 
port, some time is spent in accurately 
balancing the body before this action is 
hazarded. The slightest mistake would 
necessitate a fall, of which it has been observed the sick horse is endued 
with a particular dread. Therefore, after a certain time spent in prep- 
aration, the legs are, with much muscular exertion, lifted from the ground, 
and the sufferer hops onward. 
The wretchedness of the quadruped, however, is not complete until 
one or both hind legs are implicated. From some hidden cause, the 
anguish of the animal, great as it may be, is not perfected while the 
lameness resides in front. The horse, suffering in a fore limb, has even 
laid on flesh during the period of enforced idleness. But when the pos- 
terior extremities are injured, the constitution is involved. The body 
wastes rapidly, and every fiber within the huge framework seems to quiver 
with sensibility. 
If the creature, thus disabled in one 
leg, is obliged to advance, the chief 
difficulty is to so place the sound limb 
upon the earth that the balance shall 
not be destroyed. There are the two 
fore legs to rest upon, and the head to 
act as a kind of counterpoise; there- 
fore there is little impediment to rais- 
ing of the trunk; but the obstacle con- — "Ypnstwasy owe vostenion root 18 INJURED, 
sists in the peril to be surmounted when 
the sound member reaches the ground. A certain shock has then to be 
THE MANNER IN WHICH THE HORSE PRO- 
GRESSES WHEN ONE FORE LEG IS INCA- 
PACITATED. 
