LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
361 
Lastly, we must bear in mind, that the knee joint may be the 
hidden and mysterious seat of lameness, and that we may be refer- 
ring that to the shoulder or foot which all the while lies concealed 
within dr about the knee. Mr. Arthur Cherry’s papers, inserted 
in The Veterinarian for 1845, instruct us how to search for 
diagnostics of this. Verily, there is, we are sorely afraid, after 
all, about the seat of lameness — “ more things than are dreamt 
of in our philosophy.” Nothing but steady observation, and 
faithful and frequent report, can clear up these matters ; and this 
veterinarians are, or ought to be, setting their minds to the per- 
formance of. Progress in our knowledge after such a manner, it is 
true, cannot be but tardy ; once attained, however, it will prove of 
a character that will be sure ever afterwards to serve us in 
practice. 
The Causes of Shoulder Lameness are all comprehended 
under injury in some or other form : we have no notion of the 
production of lameness of this description apart from some wrench, 
sprain, stretch ( tcart ), laceration, contusion, &c. of the shoulder; 
hence a slip-up, a false step, an over-strained gallop or leap, a 
violent tugging or pulling of the limb, occasioned by the attrapment 
of the foot in a rut or rabbit-hole, a collision against any hard or 
unresisting body of the point of the shoulder, any thing, in fact, that 
may outwardly injure the horse or may occasion the animal inwardly 
to injure himself, may prove the cause of a shoulder lameness. 
In riding-school ana military practice there is one particular 
movement which, carried to excess, is exceeding likely to cause 
shoulder lameness, and that is what is called shouldering-in and 
shouldering-out. Veterinary surgeons in the army see such cases 
occasionally ; though, on inquiry, they will generally prove refer- 
able to abuse of the said practice, and not to the moderate or ju- 
dicious performance of it. Some years ago I was employed in 
attending the horses sent to the cavalry depot then established at 
St. John’s Wood Every now and then a horse was brought to 
me lame in the shoulder, and, on one occasion, cases of the kind 
became so prevalent that I was instigated to make inquiries into 
the causes of them, which, with very little trouble, and less demur, 
I found to be the strained exercises of shouldering in and out to 
which such horses had been put in the riding-school. Simple with- 
drawal of the lame horses from their work, and resting them in 
their stalls, restored them to soundness ; and a word of caution in 
the proper quarter put an end to the evil. 
The Treatment of Shoulder Lameness will have to be 
conducted on those general principles which are our best guides in 
all similar affections. In making our selection out of the many 
