SOME OBSCURE LESIONS UNMASKED* 633 
9 & 
complicated ; but, when man’s ingenuity is taxed to the uttermost 
of such mechanical contrivances, we know by experience that the 
machine is liable to get out of order, when in use, in proportion to 
its complexity. But how much more prone to derangement must 
be the joints of animal mechanism, when we reflect that delicate 
nervous tissues take immediate cognizance of the slightest jar ! 
In slow locomotion there is little or no concussion, but in quick 
progression there,are structures especially adapted to ward off con- 
cussion, andjf^hich are complicated in proportion as they approach 
the ground^surface. 
At tlig back of the fetlock we find those exquisitely delicate 
structures,'** double joints, which have to perform the combined 
mechanical offices of pulley and lever, besides sustaining a portion 
of the superincumbent weight. 
It is well known that the chief wearing-places of the racer’s fore 
leg are the flexor tendon and its sheath — the suspensory ligament 
where it is single, with its bifurcating branches inside and out of 
the fetlock — also the cross-band ligaments of the pastern at the seat 
of ringbone. 
When a race-horse has met with mishaps of either of these struc- 
tures, and we happen to be called in by an intelligent trainer of some 
years’ experience, the chances are as about ten to one that we find 
the seat of injury to be located precisely where he has described it. 
These persons are, in general, perfectly familiar with the important 
distinction between a clap of the main back sinew and the elonga- 
tion or jutting out of the suspensory ligament. 
I have not now taken up my pen to elucidate the above formid- 
able every-day diseases, they having been already duly noted in 
our standard works and by lecturers ; but this same practical trainer 
gives us a call, fldgetty and puzzled, and says he has a two-year-old 
in full training of immense promise and engagement, but is as loath 
to admit the existence of lameness as though the confession would 
he the forfeiture of his own life. At length it comes out, that he 
thinks his stride is shortened in his gallop — that he is somewhat 
careful in his slow exercise, particularly in declivities — that he 
drops occasionally in his walk, which he never used to do, and 
when in the stable does not stand firmly on his fore legs, as at first; 
then describes his sinews and ligaments as perfectly clean and fine, 
and winds up by declaring that there is nothing whatever to be 
seen to account for the strange falling off ; but admits that, upon 
running the colt out in hand, he trots somewhat stilty in his 
action. 
Upon this the consulting surgeon puts himself into the mail train, 
and probably by stable-time the following morning finds himself 
VOL. XX. 4 P 
