re is a great deal of abstract interest in the study of
that endowment of the animal economy which enables its possessor to
change his place at will and convey himself whithersoever his needs or
his moods may incline him; how much greater, however, the interest that
attaches to the subject when it becomes a practical and economic
question and includes within its purview the various related topics
which belong to the domains of physiology, pathology, therapeutics, and
the entire round of scientific investigation into which it is finally
merged as a subject for medical and surgical consideration--in a word,
of actual disease and its treatment. It is not surprising that the
intricate and complicated apparatus of locomotion, with its symmetry and
harmony of movement and the perfection and beauty of its details and
adjuncts, by students of creative design and attentive observers or
nature and her marvelous contrivances and adaptations, should be
admiringly denominated a living machine.

Of all the animal tribe the horse, in a state of domesticity, is the
largest sharer with his master in his liability to the accidents and
dangers which are among the incidents of civilized life. From his
exposure to the missiles of war on the battlefield to his chance of
picking up a nail from the city pavement there is no hour when he is
not in danger of incurring injuries which for their repair may demand
the best skill of the veterinary practitioner. This is true not alone of
casualties which belong to the class of external and traumatic cases,
but includes as well those of a kind perhaps more numerous, which may
result in lesions of internal parts, frequently the most serious and
obscure of all in their nature and effects.

The horse is too important a factor in the practical details of human
life and fills too large a place in the business and pleasure of the
world to justify any indifference to his needs and physical comfort or
neglect in respect to the preservation of his peculiar powers for
usefulness. In entering somewhat largely, therefore, upon a review of
the subject, and treating in detail of the causes, the symptoms, the
progress, the treatment, the results, and the consequences of lameness
in the horse, we are performing a duty which needs no word of apology or
justification. The subject explains and justifies itself, and is its own
vindication and illustration, if any are needed.

The function of locomotion is performed by t