THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XVIII, No. 210. JUNE 1845. New Series, No. 42. 
LAMENESS. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S. 
THE diseases of horses admit of being ranged into two classes, 
under the denominations of SICKNESS and LAMENESS ; the for- 
mer comprehending such disorders as affect the animal sys- 
tem generally, or any of the various organs concerned in the 
functions of digestion, respiration, sensation, &c. ; the latter such 
as have for their especial seat the organs of locomotion : those 
parts of the nervous system which regulate voluntary motion 
being also often either directly or indirectly implicated. However 
painful and dangerous to the horse sickness may prove to be, 
lameness can hardly be said, so far as his owner is concerned, to 
be a state less vexatious : through it he loses the labours of a 
valued servant, from habit rendered so indispensably useful to 
him that he feels at a loss to find a substitute in whom he can 
place equal confidence. “ No foot, No horse,” was the quaint 
title of an old work on lameness ; and an expressive one enough 
it must be admitted to be, when we come to consider how value- 
less a horse is whose feet are in an unsound condition. This 
shews the great importance of the subject we are about to engage 
in ; and it is one, we may affirm without fear of contradiction, 
which often in practice calls for all the sagacity and penetration 
the veterinarian of experience even can summons to his assistance. 
The DERIVATION of the word lame , on the authority of our best 
lexicographers, is from the Anglo-Saxon word lam, weak ; or else 
from the analagous German verb Icemen, to weaken. 
Definition. — Lameness is the manifestation in the act of 
progression, by one or more of the limbs, of pain or weakness, 
inability or impediment. 
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