The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1894-09-04

Iameness. The determination OF the
lame leg must be a settled point before
any step be taken to relieve the lame
ness The application of remedies to the
sound rather than to the unsound limb
has more than once exposed to ridicule
the too confident master or the cunning
groom. A horse suffering acute pain in
one of his legs will, if it be a fore limb,
as the phrase goes, point the lame
foot. e., place it in AN extended po-
sition in advance of its fellow-and in
this manner himself inform us by such
silent supplication for relief where
abouts he feels his pain The animal
will do this point while standing in his
stall even, so that "a person going into
his stable may, from this circumstance
alone, not only discover a lame horse,
but also foretell the leg of which he
will go lame.
In qualification of this remark, how
ever, it must be added that pointing
does not invariably denote lameness
Some horses will point from habit
they have contracted during some pre-
vious lameness Should the pain be in a
hind limb, the animal will either stand
with it flexed, treading gingerly upon
the tip of the toe, or else carry the foot
quite off the ground and thus cooked
up''-as the saying is, go hopping along
upon three legs. A horse with acute
pain in both fore feet will stand with
his hind feet advanced underneath his
belly, resting first one fore foot, then the
other, and every time he moves will
rear up his head and strike out his neck
in expression Of the pain he suffers. On
the other hand, should his hind feet be in
pain, he will stand with his fore limbs
extended backward toward the central
line of gravity, with his head hung
down, lifting first one hind leg and then
the other
In respect to the leg upon which the
horse "drops, +" any man who has been
lame himself, who has had (and who
has not had?) a painful corn and has
noted his own limping action, will not
need to be informed that every time
pressure upon his foot with the corn
gives him pain, instantly fiinching from
it by a momentary elevation of his body
he lifts his weight as much as he can off
his ailing foot to let it down or drop"
upon his sound foot. The same thing
happens to the lame horse. Flinching
from the pressure or conclusion of the
lame leg or foot against the ground, he
suddenly lifts the lame side of his body
to drop" the weight of it upon the
sound side.
Parts in their natural condition pos
sessing elasticity or motion one upon
tlw other may, from the effects of in
fiammation, become glued together or
converted from soft into hard, unyield-
ing tissues, and the result be lameness
continuing long after all infiammatory
action and pain have departed. Exam
pies of this daily meet our eyes among
the numberless horses, trotters espe-
cially There are lame from 'bunged,
round or solidifed legs, weakness in
the limbs, by which is to be understood
diminished power or tone III their mus
cular or ligamentous parts.
Should the lameness be in one OF his
fore limbs, the head, with the body, is
elevated and depressed, the latter mo-
ton giving to the head that significant
mod by which we distinguish at once
which is the lame leg. On the other
hand, if the lameness be in a hind limb
the Group viii ascend and descend, the
head being kept steady the while or else
jerked up every time acute pain is ex-
perienced. Charles r. Wood, " S.,
in American Cultivator
One reason for the excellence of Eng
ish mutton is that the pasture season is
longer there than here. But the silo in
America and the practice of planting
erops for early and late green food will