VARIETIES AND CAUSES OF STRINGHALT. 751 
limb, and their contraction is therefore more easily controlled. Possibly 
the centi al disturbance manifested by the affection of certain groups of 
muscles may sometimes be of a secondary character, the peripheral 
imitation in time causing changes in the central nervous matter. At 
any rate, temporary disease of parts removed from the centre sometimes 
produces chronic stringhalt. Thus, after injuries to the foot, such as 
Piicks, treads, or laminitis, wounds of the hock, fractures of the external 
angle of .the ilium, or even after the application of a blister, one sometimes 
sees stiinghalt, which continues despite removal of the original irritation. 
Ascheberg saw stringhalt result from tetanus. In such cases one might 
imagine that the peripheral irritation had produced permanent inter¬ 
ference with innervation, and that the oft-quoted dictum of Jordanus 
Fig. 277.—Stringhalt. 
Ruffus, “ Cessante causa cessat effect us ,” no longer applied. Dollar is of 
the opinion that many cases of stringhalt are due, like chorea, to 
localised sclerosis of the spinal cord. 
Temporary stringhalt accompanies various conditions, but especially 
injuries to the foot; Wittlinger saw it after suppuration in the tendon 
sheaths of the fetlock region. 
The course of the disease varies greatly. The symptomatic form 
accompanying sprain develops slowly, and sometimes disappears at the 
same time as the spavin lameness. Stringhalt often develops rapidly 
after external injury; some cases appear suddenly without visible cause, 
and are attributed (in Moller’s opinion erroneously) to catching cold. 
Such cases are probably due to muscular rheumatism, which often 
produces movements resembling stringhalt. 
