HIP LAMENESS. 
683 
lameness would be almost impossible, the causes being too varied. Only 
the most important can therefore be enumerated. Hip lameness may 
originate in the following structures :— 
(1) In the hip-joint. Mechanical injuries, bruises produced by falls, 
collisions, or kicks, displacements in consequence of slipping, of the foot 
being caught in the ground, &c., are all liable to produce inflammation 
and lameness. Sometimes the skin and surface muscles are more 
affected than the joint proper, and then there is more or less pronounced 
inflammation over the hip-joint or external angle of the ilium. 
Partial or complete rupture of the ligamentum teres and extravasation 
of blood into the joint are not infrequently met with. In a horse which 
had suffered from hip lameness for more than a year, the hip-joint was 
found to be surrounded by fibrous connective tissue, and to exhibit peri¬ 
articular osteophytes. The synovial membrane was about 2 inches in 
thickness, the articular cartilage had partly disappeared from the 
cotyloid cavity, and its edges were undergoing degenerative change. 
The case was therefore one of arthritis chronica sicca (coxitis chronica). 
Whilst making a post-mortem of a horse, the subject of hip lameness, 
Prietsch found fracture of the cotyloid cavity which had not been 
diagnosed during life. 
In cattle, luxation of the femur may remain unrecognised. Harms 
states having seen subluxations in these animals. Noack found double¬ 
sided purulent inflammation of the hip-joint in an eight year old cow. 
The joints when opened discharged about a cupful of very thick, gruel¬ 
like greyish-brown, offensive pus. Noack described the disease as metas¬ 
tatic, and considered it a result of the traumatic pericarditis which had 
simultaneously existed. It is probable that in oxen purulent coxitis is 
sometimes of tuberculous origin. In the specific arthritis (“navel-ill”) 
of young animals, purulent disease of the hip-joint may be seen. The 
arthritis chronica sicca, known in man as malum coxae senile, is not 
common in horses. Both clinical observation and the results of post- 
’ mortem examination support this view, though occasionally the disease 
does occur in animals. In dogs, it often causes chronic hip lameness, 
and it has been seen in foals. 
(2) Another cause of hip lameness is disease of the bones, i.e., of the 
lumbar vertebrae, pelvis, and femur. Old fractures of the pelvis some¬ 
times occasion obscure lameness. In one such case Bayer detected 
fracture of the os pubis. On superficial examination, fracture of the 
external angle of the ilium may be mistaken for hip lameness, as may 
fracture of the trochanter of the femur. Under the title trochanteric 
lameness, Williams describes a disease of the upper trochanter in the 
horse, manifested by chronic inflammation and formation of exostoses. 
(3) The cause of hip lameness is more often to be sought in the 
