296 
HE VIEW—LAMENESS IN THE HORSE. 
bis accuracy, for there is not an experienced practitioner who reads 
but intuitively recognises them ; they are the results of his own 
experience, the guiding points of his own practice, familiar to his 
mouth as household words, and serving him in the daily routine 
of his duty as faithfully as the spirits of the lamp or the ring. How 
he acquired them, where he picked them up, at what periods they 
were accumulated, “ where engendered how begotten,” he is mira¬ 
culously ignorant; but there they are, obedient to the beck and call 
of every one deserving the name of an experienced practitioner. 
That this is true, all will agree; but the wonder is, that no one 
before has ever communicated this knowledge to others : with the 
bare exception the lecture-room—and there but too sparingly di¬ 
vulged—all, both authors and practitioners, have proved them¬ 
selves arrant misers, hoarding up invaluable knowledge, using it, 
it may be thriftily and well for themselves, but, in the end, they 
have died and made no sign to enlighten others. 
We have had many authors who have written on the lamenesses 
of horses, the causes of those lamenesses, and their seats; but we 
have never had one before who has (aught us how to make an 
examination, who has pointed out the symptoms that examination 
should elucidate, or the opinion that should be formed on the indi¬ 
cations thus obtained, at all to be compared to William Percivall. 
Are proofs wanting of this ] They are to be found “ thick as the 
leaves in Val Ambrosie.” We are first to notice our patient while 
at rest. 
“ A horse suffering acute pain in one of his legs will—if it be 
a fore limb—as the phrase goes, ‘point’ the lame foot, i. e. place 
it in an extended position in advance of its fellow, and in this 
manner himself inform us, by such silent supplication for relief, 
whereabouts he feels his pain. The animal will do this (point) while 
standing in his stall even; so that a person going into his stable 
may, from this circumstance alone, not only discover a lame horse, 
but also foretel the leg of which he will go lame In qualification 
of this remark, however, it must be added, that pointing does not 
invariably denote lameness: some horses will point from a habit 
they have contracted during some previous lameness; others will 
for the sake of ease or repose point, and thus rest first one fore foot 
and then the other. Should the pain be in a hind limb, the animal 
will either stand with it flexed, treading gingerly upon the tip of the 
toe, or else cany the foot quite off the ground, and thus, ‘ cocked 
