EXAMINATION OF HOUSES FOR SOUNDNESS. 
63 
jugular groove will dam the blood in a normal vein, and if 
the dilatation be bassilated in character we would suspect 
that our animal had been the subject of repeated bleeding, 
which may have been necessitated by such an unwonted 
affection as head staggers; or if dilatation does not take place, 
our vein may have become obliterated from previous phle¬ 
bitis. It may be that the trachea is irregular or angular, which 
might have been produced by fracture of a ring or from the 
operation of tracheotomy, which we know is often followed 
by the complication of roaring. It would not be out of place 
here to feed the animal just enough to determine the absence 
of a jabot, and to see if mastication and deglutition are per¬ 
formed in a natural manner. 
The hand and eye passing carefully over the withers 
would convince us of the absence of fistula, cysts, abscess, or 
diseased bone in this region; and keeping on down the verte¬ 
bral column, and pressing with the lingers on arriving at the 
lumbar region we would expect to see our animal yield 
gently, as do all horses who are enjoying immunity from 
renal affections or whose spinal bones have not become ossi¬ 
fied. A gross inspection of the sides of the chest may show 
marks of blisters, the rhythm of respiration or the double 
movement of heaves. While the ear, placed against the 
thoracic walls, will give the music of the vesicular murmur, 
as the air-cells fill in the'whole extent of the surface of the 
lungs. 
At the umbilicus we may find marks of hernia, and at the 
inguinal opening we look for the complications of castration; 
or if he be a stallion our mind would be at rest if we made a 
rectal exploration and found the internal openings of the 
canal alike on each side, thus doing away with the possibility 
of his being subject to intermittent hernia. 
By scrutinizing the penis, or vulva, the tail and the anus, 
we are then prepared to go into a detailed examination of 
the extremities. 
As a general rule, any lame animal is unsound ; and as a 
rule, we will not discuss whether the lameness is acute or 
chronic. If he is lame at the time we examine him, he is un- 
