690 
T. L. BOLTON. 
ment upon the animal, and supplied the means for doing - so. 
Dr. Bryden alone accepted the invitation. He made a care¬ 
ful examination, and diagnosed the case as a disorder result¬ 
ing from defective hoofs. This belief that a defective hoof 
was the cause of spring-halt he had been led to by his father 
more than thirty years before. This is his description of the 
animal and its pathological symptoms: 
“ The horse was a small black pony, about fourteen hands 
high, and twenty years old, apparently well enough, with the 
exception of hind legs, which were badly afflicted with spring¬ 
halt, both legs being nearly, if not quite, alike. In viewing 
the animal from behind, the crests of the illium were not even. 
The gluteals were both alike flat, and the hips drooping, and 
the sacrum and tail elevated and coarse; the muscles to the 
stifle were somewhat wasted; the muscles behind the tibia 
were small, and felt like tendons to within two or three inches 
of their origin. The hocks were both coarse, but not more 
than ought to be expected under the circumstances, his age 
and the way he had been used for some time having tended 
to produce changes; both had a small elevation or slight 
coarseness at the seat of bone spavin. His legs below the 
hocks were always swollen, from the fact that when he at¬ 
tempted to move in his stall he struck his ankles against the 
sides with such force as to make and keep them sore.” 
Most of these symptoms will be recognized immediately 
as common to all cases of spring-halt. Dr. Bryden, believing 
that the hoofs were the primary cause, and that those other 
symptoms resulted from the disordered hoofs, gave special 
attention to them. He says : 
“ They were smaller than nature had intended them to be, 
and very nearly round; the wall short and very thick, the 
sole low, the bars strong, the heels short, and the frog of me¬ 
dium size. The horn seemed fairly healthy, but it grasped 
the extremity like a vise, causing him much uneasiness.” 
Dr. Bryden began his treatment upon the theory that the 
above-described symptoms were due entirely to the compres¬ 
sion which the too small hoofs exerted upon the nerves and 
blood-vessels supplying the lower extremity. The hoofs were 
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