554 LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
Chester; Storrar, Chester; Woods, Wigaa; Lawson, Woolton ; 
Barnes, Tarperley ; and the Secretary. 
Refreshment was kindly provided by the President. 
Business .—The Secretary notified that he had received letters 
expressing inability to attend from Messrs. Cartwright, Whit¬ 
church; Carless, Stafford; Taylor, Wakefield; and T. Taylor, 
Manchester. 
The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. 
The President then called upon Messrs. Lawson and Wilson to 
report the result of their investigations upon the condition of the 
navicular joints in the horses’ feet they undertook to dissect, agree¬ 
able to the wish of the members expressed at the previous meeting. 
One of the feet was exhibited, and both gentlemen stated that in 
neither foot was found the slightest trace of inflammation, adhe¬ 
sion, or ulceration. 
The Secretary then introduced for discussion the subject of 
stringhalt and shivering in the following essay : 
STRING HALT. 
For several reasons a discussion upon stringhalt and shivering 
cannot possess the same amount of practical interest as the con¬ 
sideration of many other diseases which we are called upon to 
treat, where a favorable result may attend our efforts to cure. 
Many difficulties obstruct our endeavours to investigate the nature 
of the affections referred to ; in the first place, the true physiology 
of the structures implicated in these affections is at the present 
day but imperfectly understood ; and secondly, the field of research, 
although the reverse of barren, is almost unbroken ground ; yet I 
think by investigating the nature of even these insignificant dis¬ 
eases we shall reap a profitable harvest, which, if not precisely the 
crop of information we directly seek, will repay the time employed 
by advancing our knowledge upon some collateral diseases. 
Surely the fact of our employers being satisfied with the shallow 
opinions we are obliged to give when questioned upon the nature 
of these affections, is but a poor argument in support of the apathy 
that too generally exists in the profession on these questions, and 
I venture to hope for a time when the desire to obtain knowledge 
for its own sake will supersede more mercenary motives. 
Having made a promise to introduce these subjects for discussion, 
I shall endeavour to comply therewith, not by advocating any special 
theory, but by making remarks upon the question, trusting that 
the intrinsic interest of the subject may prove sufficient to stimulate 
every gentleman present to advance his peculiar views, so that each 
of us may leave this room with another link added to his never-to- 
be completed chain of knowledge. 
I believe most veterinary surgeons are agreed that stringhalt is 
the effect of inordinate contraction of the flexor muscles of the 
metatarsal bones and extensors of the hind foot, or, more defi¬ 
nitely, of the muscles engaged in determining flexion of the tibio- 
astragalean articulation of the hock. 
Some are of opinion that the cause of the exalted action is an 
