LACERATION OF THE FLEXOR METATARSI MUSCLE 
265 
by Dr. Lockhart. A good blister was applied over the stitie joint 
and one all round the hock, the horse was placed in slings and 
immobilized as much as possible. After four weeks of this treat¬ 
ment, the blisters having produced all their effects, and the scabs 
cleaned off, the animal on being relieved of his slings, backed out of 
his stable and walked a few steps ; judge of my disappointment— 
there was not the slightest improvement. The actual cautery in 
deep line points, with severe blistering, was applied to the hock, 
principally in front, and a good blister reapplied over the stifle ; 
another month allowed to pass—another disappointment. At the 
beginning of the third month a third blister was applied over the 
hock only, and at the end of this ninety days’ treatment, I was no 
farther advanced. My patient walked just as badly. I kept him a 
few days longer, and about one hundred days after the first visit 
he was destroyed. 
It is unnecessary for me to tell you that I had made up my 
mind to hold a careful examination. The three first cases related 
and this last were the only ones I had seen in this country, and 
though the diagnosis made was correct, it was incomplete, and the 
fact of being incomplete rendered the treatment uncertain. I had 
given orders to my assistant to have the leg severed from above 
the stifle, the amputation to be made at about the lower third of 
the femur, and thereby securing the two attachments of the muscle. 
Through some misunderstanding, however, the leg was cut off in 
the bone yard, about the middle of the tibia, and thus we lost one 
of our opportunities, and the post mortem was incomplete. How¬ 
ever, Dr. Coates took hold of this part of the leg and made a care¬ 
ful inspection of all that remained of the flexor metatarsi muscle. 
With the exception of some serous exudation in the cellular 
tissue, the entire structure proved healthy, and the fleshy as well 
as the tendinous portions, with their four lower insertions, were 
entirely free from disease. 
The literature on this subject is somewhat incomplete, and it 
is for that reason that I take to-day the opportunity to present 
you with these few remarks. 
Percivall, in his valuable work on lameness, mentions two cases, 
one which recovered and resumed his work after two months, and 
