492 REVIEW—RIGOT’S ARTICULATIONS OF THE HORSE. 
of course, Nature, ever wise for the protection and well-being of 
what she has constructed with such consummate skill, will, in such 
cases, make some extra provisions against the injuries likely to 
accrue to one of her most perfect pieces of animal mechanism, 
namely, the tarsal joint. 
We have heard many surgeons, both human and veterinary, 
on examining these sulci, say that, from the situation which they 
occupy, and from the irregularity of their appearance, such a 
state of the cartilage must be preceded by inflammation. Indeed, 
many imagine that every alteration of structure, and, in fact, all 
abnormal phenomena met with in the different tissues which 
form the living animal, are necessarily brought about by inflam¬ 
matory action. This is one of the many absurdities in which the 
fire-side pathologist is most apt to indulge. 
Observation teaches us, that we ought not to regard every in¬ 
crease and diminution of the action of the different vessels, 
whether nutrient, absorbent, or otherwise, as inflammatory: 
there are many diseases in which inflammation takes no part; 
yet some of them are, nevertheless, fatal in their termination. 
There is, however, a fact, which goes much further than any 
thing we have as yet adduced towards proving that the synovial 
fossae are not the results of inflammatory action, and that they 
should not be considered as morbid productions. 
It must be admitted, that there are a great number of our do¬ 
mestic animals which are rarely, if ever, affected with lameness, 
excepting that resulting from accident. The cat is one. Our 
feathered bipeds may also be included in the list. Now, in the 
cat we have frequently met with excavations, to a greater or less 
extent, in the articulatory cartilages ; but more particularly in 
those of the elbow and tarsal joints. While dissecting the arti¬ 
culations of common poultry, and those of many of the wild 
species of birds, especially the larger of the raptores, we have 
often seen the same appearance. Some time ago, through the 
kindness of our friend Mr. Youatt, we had an opportunity of 
examining some of the articulations of a very large deer. Here 
we found excavations both extensive and deep in some parts of 
the diarthrodial cartilages, yet the animal shewed no lameness 
previous to death. 
We wish it to be particularly understood, that we do not assert 
that there is wcucr an ulceration of the cartilages of the tibia and 
astragalus, unaccompanied by any other lesion, and which is, at 
the same time, the sole cause of lameness. We only say, that we 
have never met with it uncombined with disease elsewhere. 
The following are the conclusions to which we have been led 
by oui investigations :— 
