The flexor tendons of the legs are liable to a variety of accidents. Injuries to these structures, according to their severity, are denominated: =strain of the flexor tendon=, =clap of the back sinews=, =sprain of the back sinews=, and =breaking down=. The first accident is common enough, and springs from the horse being forced to perform extraordinary work on uneven ground. Else it is caused by the irritability of the rider; tugging now at one rein, then at the other; forcing a timid animal into strange contortions, and at the same time elevating the head, thereby throwing all the strain upon the muscles. This is a spectacle repeatedly presented to him who walks about town. An angry rider is seen sawing, without compunction, at the mouth of some patient horse. The spectators look on complacently. There is nothing offensive to them in an enraged man venting his anger on an unoffending creature. Were the act generally reprehended, it would not be so frequently exhibited; but the only emotion the contemplation of another's brutality appears to elicit, is a desire in the passengers to provide for their own security. The main cause, however, of the most prevalent of these sad deformities is that of the shaft-horse descending a steep declivity with a load behind it. The weight would roll down the descent: this the horse has to prevent, and the chief stress is then upon the back tendons. The injuries to such parts are generally of a chronic character. The strain seldom occasions decided lameness. But the horse being harnessed to the shafts, the cause is in daily operation. The part injured is being constantly excited. Thus, without the development of a single acute symptom, the tendons are stretched--a low kind of inflammation is generated--and this action being kept up, the sinews gradually lose their elasticity, and shorten. When strain of the fore leg is received, the animal goes oddly, but is not lame. However, if put into the stable and taken out the next morning, the horse is found to be stiff and apparently very cramped. The halting action may disappear upon exercise; but assuredly it will again be present on the following dawn. The proprietor may resolve to work "the brute" sound. Such a speculation with disease may occasionally answer; but, on the large scale, it is a losing game, for it more often fails than succeeds: the limb, on work, commonly does not amend. The symptoms are aggravated in every way; and what was curable in the first stage is apt, after the lapse of time, to degenerate into an intractable malady. The many horses to be seen in the London cab ranks, with the fore limbs permanently contracted, are evidences as to the result of such very knowing treatment.