790 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



conceivable that ligamentous enlargement can occur in any 

 other way than by sprains. 



It is beyond the scope of this work to enter fully into 

 the various causes of lameness ; we have dealt elsewhere* 

 with some forms of serious lameness, and the causes in 

 operation. But it is essentially within the scope of hygiene 

 to deal with their prevention, and the two chief preventive 

 features are never to work horses hard that are out of 

 condition, and never to work an animal beyond its strength. 

 This latter includes the pace, the distance, and the weight 

 carried or drawn. If attention to these preventive features 

 were paid lameness would diminish. 



Heredity as a cause of lameness is believed to play an 

 important part, and considering the indiscriminate nature 

 of horse breeding, it would not be surprising if it were so ; 

 but as a matter of fact we believe the amount of exact 

 evidence on this point is not very great, and the opinion of 

 even experienced breeders is by no means above error. It 

 is generally conceded that sidebone, ringbone, navicular 

 disease, and spavin, are hereditary, and so long as men 

 regard the final use of a crippled and worthless mare as 

 something to get a foal out of, there is every reason to 

 believe there may be a good deal of truth in the accepted 

 theory. 



Excepting navicular disease and laminitis we have made 

 no special reference to foot lameness, though it is by far 

 the most common cause of trouble. It will perhaps be 

 more convenient to deal with it in speaking of the hygiene 

 of the foot, as so many causes of foot lameness are mixed 

 up with the shoeing question. 



The next class of locomotor troubles produced by work 

 are Fractures ; by far the majority of fractures are caused 

 by kicks, but fractures from concussion may take place 

 during work, of which the typical example are the suffraginis 

 and corona. Both of these may be split or comminuted 

 during a gallop over hard ground, of which a highway or 



* ' Some Diseases of the Joints of the Horse ': Journal of Com- 

 parative Pathology, vol. v., 1892. 



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