194 
ON WOUNDED AND DIVIDED TENDONS. 
ruined as hunters, and ended their days in harness, never again 
being able to take the field. 
I shall for the present leave the cases of thorough division of 
the flexor tendon, to advert to lesions of either branch of the sus- 
pensory ligament. The seat of this injury is generally four or 
five inches higher up the leg, approaching the outer or inner ancle. 
In such a case the external wound is larger and broader, the con- 
tinuation of the suspensory ligament branching off at the inner or 
outer ancle being involved in the mischief, including, perhaps, a 
lesion of the theca, and even the flexor perforatus wounded, but not 
a division of it, the animal almost immediately evincing most 
acute pain, completely swinging the leg off the ground for a few 
seconds, and when urged on to the first convenient situation 
for his accommodation, can only lodge his toe upon the ground. 
Truly formidable as the nature of this injury appears at the outset, 
the patient eventually does well. His recovery usually occupies 
many months, frequently reflects great credit upon the medical 
attendant, and very deservedly, for he experiences anxious hours 
enough during it various stages, warding off the constitutional dis- 
turbance arising from excessive pain, often approaching 
Tetanus combined with pretty free escape of synovia . — ■ 
I have found that success generally attends our endeavours when 
the wound inflicted happens to be above the fetlock joint, many 
instances having occurred during my practice in which the flexor 
perforatus has been severed in the way before described imme- 
diately above the bulge or posterior part of the fetlock joint; and 
when timely veterinary aid has been employed, with a due regard 
to the position of the limb, by causing the ends of the divided ten- 
don as speedily as possible to approximate, highly favorable has 
been the result, and the hunter again restored to his former useful- 
ness ; although not without much pain and considerable lameness 
existing during a tedious curative process, but with no inclination 
of the toe of the foot to elevate, owing to the situation of the wound. 
Great outrages, I feel persuaded, may be inflicted upon the short 
flexor, but not so with the long flexor in the heel, as a division there 
I have invariably seen accompanied by an immediate elevation of 
the toe. 
All the foregoing remarks relate to the fore leg : they apply 
equally to the hinder limb, but it is less frequently cut down. An 
interesting case has occurred to me of a very handsome thorough- 
bred five-years-old mare, the property of a German sportsman. 
On the first occasion of her being shewn to hounds, and sup- 
posed by him to be ruined in consequence of one of these sharp 
flints coming in contact with the extensor tendon of the hind leg, 
