ON SOUNDNESS. 
163 
and she was blistered on the stifle, but the lameness continued 
undiminished. “ It is in the hip joint,’ 1 said a second ; and the 
proper means for this lameness there were adopted, but she 
was no better. “Nine out of ten of these obscure lamenesses 
behind,” said a third, ‘‘are in the hock : and, look at her action ; 
it is in the hock plainly enough here ;” and the poor creature was 
punished in the hock, but without the slightest benefit. Mr. 
John Percivall, than whom a better man and a better judge of 
the horse never existed, afterwards saw her. “Why, can’t you 
see ?” said he ; “ it has been in the fetlock all this while and 
she was once more blistered and turned out; and she came up 
perfectly sound. The last examiner always said, and naturally 
enough thought, that he had hit upon the true seat of lameness. 
That, however, did not necessarily follow, although it was very 
probable : but the case is a striking illustration of the occasional 
difficulty of explaining the cause or the locality of lameness 
behind, when there is no external alteration of structure. 
Here, however, was alleged alteration of structure. Mr. Field 
was guided by “the heat and swelling” of the stifle; Mr. Tur- 
ner by “the decided enlargement” of the hock ; Mr. Spooner 
more regarded the peculiar manner in which the joint was flexed. 
Now, it is not at all improbable that every one might be right at 
the time of examination. A horse shaken to pieces as this poor 
fellow, was, and lame both before and behind — the very muscles 
of the near leg behind wasted for want of use — might have a 
considerable inflammatory affection of the synovial membranes or 
ligamentous attachments of every joint — and the pain, and the 
heat, and the engorgement, and the difficult flexion of the limb, 
might shift from part to part many a time in the course of his 
long illness. This is the favourable and the probable explanation 
of the matter ; and no error of judgment is necessarily attributable 
to either of these gentlemen. 
But, on the other hand, we have too many instances of the ex- 
tent to which the habit of directing the attention to one point 
more than to any other, or almost to the exclusion of every 
other, will mislead the judgment. “ The early habit of theo- 
rizing,” says Dr. Latham, “ may so pervert the mind of the 
student, that, whatever may be his wish, he cannot observe 
honestly . He gives an undue weight to the facts which accord 
