It is lamentable to remark the number of horses which are driven through the streets of London in a disabled condition. People appear to be without feelings or recognitions when the sufferings of horse-flesh are before them. An animal with scarcely a sound limb, or else "hopping lame," may frequently be seen, in broad daylight, attached to some gentleman's carriage or tradesman's cart, to a hired vehicle or a costermonger's "all sorts." From the highest to the lowest, all are equally disgraced; the toil of a life seems incapable of purchasing a day's commiseration. A little forbearance might be a profitable investment in these cases; but no person seems able to keep a horse and to allow the animal a day of rest. So long as it can crawl, so long must patience work! Other forms of suffering than those confined to the feet affect the progression of the horse; the "whirl-bone" or hip-joint is sometimes visited by ulceration. The symptoms then in a degree resemble those exhibited when occult spavin is present; the affected limb is, however, after touching the earth, caught up more sharply when the hip is diseased. The hoof, moreover, is presented more fully during motion in the last-mentioned affection. The best method, however, to ascertain the existence of the ulceration, is to hold some soft substance over the joint, then to strike it with a mallet; the shock will be communicated to the seat of lameness, and elicit an energetic response. [Illustration: ACUTE LAMENESS CAUSED BY ULCERATION WITHIN THE HIP-JOINT.] Nothing can be done for such a condition; certain barbarities are proposed as experiments by continental veterinarians; but man obviously has no right to run chances with cruelty practiced upon breathing life. Hip-joint disease is decidedly incurable, and renders every step a separate agony. The shoulder is a very favorite seat of injury with those who pretend to a knowledge of equine ailments; with such simple folk, if a horse be lame behind, the cause is always traced to the whirl-bone; should an animal have partially lost the use of an anterior limb, the injury is invariably found in the shoulder. The proof of their correctness is always exhibited in the lessened bulk of the parts referred to; but throw a limb out of use, as lameness in the horse always does, and the absorption of the whole extremity, from want of exercise, naturally ensues. [Illustration: DRAGGING THE LIMB, THE INDICATION OF SHOULDER LAMENESS.] The shoulder-joint is occasionally ulcerated; but more often disease is found upon the tendon of the flexor brachii, a muscle which, arising from the shoulder-joint, is of service in flexing the radius. In both cases the seeming length of the arm is remarkable; so also is the fixedness of the shoulder, and the obstinate refusal to advance or to flex the arm. The consequence is, that a horse with disease of the shoulder drags the limb, and never lifts the toe from the ground.