OBSERVATIONS ON STRINGHALT. 
GG3 
the diseases to ^vhich domestic animals are subject, I never¬ 
theless must give it as my opinion that neither the ends of 
science, nor yet the reputation of our medical brethren, will 
be anything benefited by the publications of such observers 
as Dr. Busteed ; who seems to have made his dehut in equine 
pathology without first making himself acquainted with the 
most essential elements of that study—a knowledge of com¬ 
parative anatomy and physiology—and yet boldly sets his 
opinion against that of Professor Spooner, Percival, Youatt, 
and Goodwin. His errors only make more manifest the 
great necessity which exists for a thorough knowledge of the 
healtliy structure and functions of the various organs and 
textures composing the animal body, before attempting to 
examine and endeavour to account for those changes which 
occur in disease; and that more especially in such a malady 
as the one vulgarly, but expressively, termed stringhalt,^^ 
which has for many years been made the subject of close 
investigation by talented veterinary surgeons in the old 
world, who have been compelled to admit that its etiology is 
most obscure in very many instances, though the charac¬ 
teristic symptom is generally so well marked. Had the disease 
been caused by those morbid changes named by Dr. Busteed, 
I fear the honour of discoverer would not have been reserved 
for him, nor yet for very recent pathologists. 
I regret that my opportunities of elucidating the structural 
changes which may give this irregular flexion to the tarsal 
articulation have not been so numerous as those of Dr. Bus¬ 
teed, for, though extending over many years, they number 
but three; and in these my bad fortune did not enable me 
to find anything by which one could jump to a conclusion, 
though I dare say the hocks might have furnished scope for 
speculation had my imagination been lively enough, and my 
knowledge of their anatomy less profound. 
Dr. Busteed is inclined to dissent from the published 
opinions of English veterinarians, and believes the cause of 
the unsightly action to be located in the hock-joint; in fact, 
that the spasmodic flexure of the extremity is induced by the 
friction of the tibia in passing over an irritable ulcer on the 
astragalus. Has Dr. Busteed ever seen a horse, supposed to 
be suffering from articular ulceration of the hock-joint, walk 
or trot? If so, I am sure he could not have failed to notice 
a very different kind of movement in that joint to that which 
he would describe as the spasmodic action of stringhalt. 
We do not generally find much spasmodic action in a 
diseased joint, except in some severe cases of acute arthritis 
(in which the articular cartilage may be implicated), when 
