208 
OBSERVATIONS ON SOUNDNESS. 
the knee and fetlock, as well as between that joint and the 
foot. I allude to scars left after the operation of neurotomy; 
because these scars will receive some attention in another 
place. 
In pursuing our scrutiny towards the hoof, we usually 
spend a little time in ascertaining the state of parts around 
the coronet. They should feel elastic to the hand, not, as is 
too often the case, as hard and unyielding as a piece of dried 
gutta-percha. When this latter state exists, we often find 
the animal with stilty or rough action. The diseases met 
with at this part of our examination are ringbone, ossified 
cartilage, false-quarter, sand-crack, sore heels, treads and 
over-reaches. 
Ringbone is occasionally met with in horses submitted for 
an opinion as to soundness. This disease is one of much 
importance. It is found to vary a good deal as to its conse¬ 
quences, depending upon the exact situation of the abnormal 
deposit. It is occasionally seen that ringbone exists without 
interfering with the usefulness of the animal; but, as a 
general rule, the reverse is the case, especially when situated 
in the fore limbs. There are cases brought for our opinion 
which are found to be slightly lame, and with all our acute¬ 
ness we are not able to account for it, or to point to the 
cause; and we are sorely vexed,inasmuch as we are expected— 
like newspaper editors—to know everything. A few weeks, 
however, or perhaps a few days, will bring to light the hidden 
cause of lameness, which presents itself in the shape of an 
exostosis near the pedal extremity, so deeply situated as to 
occupy a spot below the coronary ligament, which eventually 
grows upwards, and becomes what is known as ringbone. 
This term is not a happy one, as we do not always find an 
exostosis forming a ring or circle round the bone; it is more 
frequently met with in two separate or distinct parts. Ring¬ 
bone is thought less of when situated on the hind feet than 
when on the fore, and much less, if both feet are affected. 
Horsemen say that if both hind feet are diseased, the horse 
will travel more easily than when lame only of one. This is 
true, and so it is with most other lamenesses. The screw 
dealer is aware of this, and fails not to make both feet suffer 
by tightening the shoe of the sound foot, by which the action 
is rendered even, although shorter. The unwary are in this 
manner deceived; they are made to believe—if mention is 
made of the shortness of action or stride—that it is the 
natural one of the animal in question, and the purchase is 
generally effected after this assurance. Action, although 
much is known about it, is, in my opinion, not thoroughly 
