BARLOW ON TENDINOUS STRUCTURES. 
261 
gether with the diseases to which these component parts are subject, 
has invariably noticed and attached much functional importance to 
these “ligamentous bands ;” and, besides recognising the uses 
which Mr. Mayhew attaches to them, he points out their functions 
as more extensive than merely those which Mr. Mayhew seems 
to think hirrtself the first to describe*. Professor Dick also, with 
“actual experience” to back “ his assertions,” has long ago de- 
scribed the injuries and diseases to which they are liable. 
The inferior of these “ligamentous bands” Professor Dick calls 
the metacarpal ligament, and has uniformly described it as being 
the seat of injury termed “ sprung tendon,” “ sprain,” or “ clap of 
the back sinews,” an affection commonly said by veterinary authors 
to be situated in the sheath" enveloping the flexor tendons them- 
selves : but he has never considered “ sprung tendon” to be, as 
Mr. Mayhew thinks it is “ more generally received” to be, a 
“ sprain of the suspensory ligament.” The symptoms existing 
under sprain of the tendon, when contrasted with those existing 
under sprain of the suspensory ligament, are dissimilar, and will 
not bear comparison in many respects. Various parts of the 
flexor tendons, as well as of the suspensory ligament, are liable to 
sprain, some more so, however, than others ; and, while the com- 
mon seat of “ sprained tendon” is in the metacarpal ligament, the 
seat of sprain of the suspensory ligament is generally not only 
differently situated, but the affection is denoted by different 
symptoms. 
I should have been very much surprised if Mr. Mayhew had 
not upon dissection found a case confirming the opinion he had 
expressed, as to the metacarpal ligament being the seat of disease, 
the consequence of inflammation and sprain. Such cases are par- 
ticularly abundant among some kinds of horses, and offer varieties 
of morbid appearances. In some, the tendons, sheaths, and liga- 
ments, are united into one enlarged mass, not unfrequently contain- 
ing patches of bony deposit. In others the metacarpal ligament 
is more exclusively the seat of disease ; and when it has been re- 
peatedly affected with sprain, and sometimes from other causes, 
there is an effusion of adventitious substances among the fibres 
composing it; so that they become thrown out of the former straight 
line of their direction, which induces, first, a straightening of the 
pastern ; next, a knuckling over of the fetlock, and, further ad- 
vancing, causes permanent and rigid flexion of the foot. 
* In a paper written by him, in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 
fifteen years ago (May 1831), Professor Dick, in giving a diagram to illustrate 
his ideas with reference to certain structures connected with the fore and 
hind leg of the horse, figures both the “ ligamentous bands” alluded to, and 
makes special mention of the inferior one. 
