DISEASES AMONG HORSES IN THE CRIMEA. 267 
frightful. You must please excuse this scribbling, for the 
cold is so intense that I can scarce write at all. Fur coats 
and caps, leggings, fires, are all of no use, for you still feel 
frozen. The ink I am writing with is warmed from time to 
time, or I could not get it to flow. 
I subjoin a few cases of some little interest : 
1. Sesamoiditis. — December 13th, 1855, my attention 
was directed to a case of lameness in the off fore-leg of a 
horse. The animal was walked and trotted, and I came to the 
conclusion that the foot was diseased. The farrier removed 
the shoe ; but after a careful examination, I could discover 
nothing to account for the lameness, the foot being to all 
appearance perfectly sound : still I thought the foot must be 
the seat of disease. 
My hospital sergeant-major and farrier both thought it a 
clear case of shoulder lameness, for no other reason that T 
could deduce, than that, as the foot was apparently sound, 
the shoulder of necessity was the seat of the lameness (in 
justice to them, I may say, I had under treatment a case of 
scapulo-humeral disease at the time). To satisfy both myself 
and them, I examined the leg carefully from the cartilage of 
the scapula downwards to the coronet, but not a sign of 
organic lesion or derangement could I detect. In this state 
of doubt, I ordered the animal into the hospital with the in- 
tention of waiting for the development of the cause. Treat- 
ment at this period would have been mere empiricism. 
Luckily, in two days after, during which period I had re- 
examined the patient with no better satisfaction, I received 
the November and December numbers of the Veterinarian , in 
the first of which, I read Mr. Turner’s able continuation 
of a disease he calls “ Sesamoiditis,” a long word, but to me 
an expressive one. My mind conceived that the pierre 
d' achoppement was at length removed, that I had a case of 
sesamoiditis, and I almost cried “ Eureka,” and only awaited 
the morning’s dawn to convince myself of the fact. Being 
fully impressed with this newborn idea, I had the lame horse 
out, and the fetlock-joint received from me a minute manipu- 
latory examination, but both my eye and sense of touch failed 
to detect the slightest derangement of structure. There was no 
unusual heat to be felt ; I ran my finger laterally, using some 
little pressure, still discovered nothing. Unsatisfied and dis- 
appointed, I placed my hand posteriorly, and passed it down 
the leg, pressing upon the perforatus just where it glides 
upon the sesamoids, when the animal flinched. Withdraw- 
ing the foot, which was slightly flexed, fearful of a mistake, I 
