486 
LAMENESS. 
every attention to the form and condition of the hoof. It is pos- 
sible that, by compression or some artificial motion given to the 
supposed lame joint, we may succeed in eliciting some further 
indications of tenderness in it : these are signs, however, upon 
which we cannot often rely. When we come to talk about the 
animal’s “ flinching” from this or that twist or squeeze, there is 
apt to result so much deception from some unusual sensitiveness 
or nervousness or fear the horse may possess, or else from lack of 
these attributes, that it is difficult, in most cases perhaps impos- 
sible, to come to any safe conclusion. 
The examination after death of joints from disease of which 
horses during life have been known for a length of time to have 
gone lame, has brought to view worm-eaten like excavations in 
those parts of the articular surfaces of the bones which appear to 
have undergone the greatest compression, and to have been the 
most likely to have sustained injury from concussion or contusion. 
In the hock joint such ragged excavations have been discovered 
upon the central or prominent part of the convexity of the astra- 
galus, and upon the opponent surface of the concavity of the tibia 
as well : in the diseased navicular joint the same appears upon 
the convexity encircling the body of the navicular bone, and upon 
the correspondent concave part of the flexor tendon; and so in 
other joints. 
The Treatment joint lamenesses require must be somewhat 
varied according to the particular joint affected, and to the cir- 
cumstances of the individual case : there are, however, certain 
general principles of therapeutics applicable to all such cases, and 
it is with them our business at present lies. Inflammation being 
commonly detectible, though that is oftener sub-acute or chronic in 
its kind than acute, our treatment must in general, at the begin- 
ning, be of an antiphlogistic or cooling description. Blood-letting, 
topical when such can be practised, is not to be dispensed with 
except in slight cases, and in them even the neglect of it often- 
times turns out matter of regret. Bleeding from the toe, in all 
lamenesses arising from disease of any of the lower joints, is an 
excellent practice. The pastern veins are not so much worth 
notice, from the inconsiderable quantity of blood they too often 
emit, and from the time they are apt to take in emitting it; but 
the plat and femoral veins may, in case of lameness in any of the 
upper joints, often be opened with great advantage. A brisk 
purge — such a one as will take good effect without the aid of 
exercise — is highly recommendable ; it will clear out the bowels, 
set the system in better order, and at the same time have some 
effect in abating the inflammation in the joint. As an application 
to the inflamed joint, nothing is so good, I believe, as some cold or 
