STRINGHALT. 
G05 
stringhalt to the spinal chord, or to the nervous trunks passing 
between it and the affected muscles; an opinion which he first 
began to entertain from having observed a broken-backed horse 
exhibit all the characteristic signs of stringhalt: and he imagines 
that many injuries of the loins, although not severe enough to 
constitute broken back, may so far disturb the nervous functions 
as to cause stringhalt. Should the injury or the consequences 
of that injury be confined to one side, then only one column of the 
marrow would be affected, and but one leg convulsed.’’ 
Mr. W. Goodwin, in the discussion to which I have already 
alluded, is disposed to be of the same way of thinking. He says, 
that a horse in his stables had stringhalt in both hind legs; 
and that he fell one day in the school, and died. Three of the 
dorsal vertebrae were anchylosed, and the spinal canal was at 
this point considerably narrowed.” It can be very readily sup¬ 
posed, that a serious injury of the spine and the spinal chord 
would materially interfere wuth the functions of the nerves that 
are given off at that place, and that stringhalt would occasionally 
be produced by this cause ; but, on the other hand, there is often 
anchylosis of the whole of the lumbar vertebrae without pro¬ 
ducing the slightest symptom of stringhalt: and this nervous 
affection has often existed without the slightest apparent lesion of 
the spine, or the cord which it contains. 
It is useless to pursue farther this part of our subject, for the 
truth of the matter is, we know nothing of the cause of string- 
halt, and nothing of its cure. You, however, I trust, will eagerly 
avail yourselves of any opportunities w’hich your practice may 
give you to illustrate this obscure disease. 
Curious Opinions .—It may relieve the dryness of a lecture on 
such a subject to refer to the opinions of two writers. The first 
is old Solleysell, in whose works there is a great deal that is 
good with respect to the form and general management of the 
horse, and a great deal of absurdity with regard to his diseases 
and their treatment. He says, that stringhalt proceeds from a 
certain thick and tough matter that falls from the upper parts upon 
the muscles, and obstructs the motion of the hock ; so that the 
horse is forced to perform the whole motion with his hip, snatch¬ 
ing up his leg on a sudden, and lifting it up higher than the 
others. You must immediately,” he proceeds, “give the fire, 
as in bone-spavin ; for it dissolves, and consumes a ])art of that 
thick and tough matter, which, obstructing the muscles of the 
horse, causes this unseemly motion.” 
Mr. John Hinds throws, to me, a perfectly new light upon the 
subject: “ This over-action of the hind leg may be brought about 
by art, or rather the ingenuity of man o[)erating upon a known 
