40 THE CANADIAN HOESE 



Treatment. — In the first instance, rest and hot fomenta- 

 tions are indicated, which, as the process of reproduction 

 begins, should be followed by stimulant embrocations or 

 mild blisters, frequently repeated, with moderate walking 

 exercise. In this case, we must trust more to nature than 

 medicine ; and in time the muscles will be reproduced, and' 

 by gentle work and well-fitting harness he will become as 

 sound as ever. Many do nothing for them but turn them 

 to pasture, and in most cases they come up all right. 



SHOULDEE-LAMENESS, SPEAIN Oj THE SHOULDEE. 



The muscles which connect the shoulder to the trunk 

 are frequently the seat of sprain ; but those muscles, more 

 particularly, which operate in the motions of the joint, are 

 liable to suffer from slipping or side-fall. Thus we find the 

 large flexor muscle (flexor brachii) which is attached to the 

 blade-bone above (coracoid process) passing over the point 

 of the shoulder in the grooves of the humerus, and becoming 

 inserted below to the head and neck of the radius, or bone 

 of the fore-arm, just below the elbow-joint, is very liable to 

 sprain. The joint itself is sometimes the seat of injury or 

 disease ; but many lamenesses are referred to the shoulder 

 which have their seat elsewhere ; for, as remarked by Blaine, 

 " farriers and persons about horses are apt to attribute every 

 lameness they do not exactly understand, and whose seat is 

 not self-evident, to an afiection of the shoulder." 



Causes. — It is not so often caused by fair, though violent 

 exercise, as by side-falls, slips, or wrenches, as, for instance, 

 by slipping on the ice, or being laired in a marsh or bog ; 

 and sometimes it is caused by slipping when rising in the 

 stable. 



Symptoms. — To guard against error in diagnosing affec- 

 tions of the shoulder, it must be borne in mind that all 



