192 
ON WOUNDED AND DIVIDED TENDONS. 
upon investigation in all its bearings, that although there is no 
portion shrouded in any mystery, yet the aspect of the case is 
sometimes at the commencement very insidious, oftentimes during 
its progress perplexing in the extreme, even to the experienced 
practitioner familiar with these casualties, occasionally trying to 
the veteran’s qualifications as to skill and firmness of purpose 
combined : a prompt decision being expected of him by the owner 
of a cut down 200 guinea hunter, on the very scene of action ; 
then and there to declare the prospect of cure, or to order a pistol 
to the head of the gallant steed. 
Of such frequent occurrence are these accidents in the hunting 
field, more particularly in the sporting district in which it has 
been my lot to reside. Being a native, I well remember from boy- 
hood a hunting season has never passed without furnishing its 
quota of such cases as to call forth the utmost skill of the expe- 
rienced veterinarian ; and I shall have the gratification of shewing 
my young friends the striking effects of wear and tear peculiar to 
the county of Surrey, having myself both hunted and travelled 
in other districts where similar accidents are comparatively un- 
known, as proved from repeated conversations with the different 
veterinarians in the several localities where I might have been 
staying. The hills in Surrey abound, proverbially so, and some 
of them are almost perpendicular; but the general character of the 
country is arable, ridge and furrow, with very little pasture ; and 
during a long continuance of wet weather it rides remarkably 
heavy, requiring the legs of our hunters to be short-jointed,, stout 
and true in all their proportions ; in short, the high-prized best 
leg is only just good enough — an animal possessing such form- 
ation being usually exempt from the casualties to which my paper 
alludes. The condition of ground peculiarly liable to favour the 
production of the most formidable of these injuries is generally 
at the breaking up of a long frost, in a short fast run, and when, 
perhaps, the hunter is over fresh, somewhat eager, and not ex- 
actly under the command of that accomplished hand which should 
invariably steer him during the chace, and proves so advantageous 
to him in his many trying encounters. 
The description of horse most susceptible of being wounded is 
the sixteen hands thorough-bred, with an undue length of meta- 
carpal and pastern bones, small fetlock joints, presenting too great 
an obliquity, admitting the tuft of hair at the posterior part 
nearly coming in contact with the ground at every stride ; carry- 
ing at the same time, perhaps, a stone or two more weight than 
he is quite master of. We will suppose such an animal as I have 
described, at the very top of condition, mounted by his owner or 
servant at a meet with stag hounds, in the immediate vicinity of 
