LAMENESS. 
365 
while the horse is at work, and is most manifest on his first egress 
from his stable ; I repeat, with this information, and with all that 
can be learnt besides from the horse’s manner of going and putting 
down his foot, the veterinarian, as the horse stands before him, 
sets about inspecting the lame limb, and examining it in every 
part with his hand. Some lamenesses* are perceptible to the 
eye, and discoverable by the eye better than by the hand ; others 
are detectible by the hand alone ; while, again, there are others 
that elude detection by either eye or hand, and which can be 
judged of through the action alone, aided by the horse’s manner 
of standing. A quick eye, judging from the general appearance 
of the lame horse and from his mode of going, even in the absence 
of any manifest disease or defect to account for the lameness, will 
very often discover at once the seat and nature of it : on the other 
hand, a man accustomed to the feel of legs and feet will, in the 
dark, be able to detect the seat of ordinary lameness as well as if 
he had actually been looking at the parts he has been feeling. I 
remember hearing the present Profesor, Sewell, at the Veterinary 
College of London, say, he was able, could he but hear a lame 
horse trot, without seeing him, to pronounce which was the lame 
leg. It is, therefore, possible for a blind man — and more possible, 
from the well-known acuteness of his faculties, for him than for a 
man who blinds or excludes himself from view of the lame horse — 
to say of what leg a horse goes lame, and afterwards to ascertain 
with the best of judgment the seat and nature of the lameness. 
The Nature of Lameness. — The disease, defect, or deformity, 
giving rise to lameness often becomes to the veterinary surgeon 
apparent so soon as its locality or seat is satisfactorily ascertained. 
He knows that foot lameness, in the absence of laminitis and such 
diseases as shew themselves externally, commonly proceeds either 
from inflammation or ulceration of synovial tissues; he knows 
that a splent consists in a conversion of fibro-cartilage into osseous 
matter, the same as happens in bone spavin ; he understands what 
is the pathological interpretation of the phrases “ broken down,” 
“ sprung sinews,” &c. ; he is acquainted with the nature of curb, 
of ringbone , of quittor , &c. ; in fine, generally speaking, when any 
mystery hangs about a case of lameness, it has reference to its 
seat : when that is discovered, the nature of the ailment is com- 
monly either palpable to demonstration, or from symptoms and 
appearances fairly and safely deducible. 
Used here and in other places for that which causes the lameness. 
