The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2): Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the FieldTaplin, William
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The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2): Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field
Taplin, William
Hunting -- Dictionaries; Sports -- Dictionaries
LAMENESS IN HORSES—proceeds from a variety of causes, and requires much
patient investigation to ascertain, to a certainty, the exact seat of
injury; for want of which judicious precaution, mischief frequently
follows. Horses are sometimes _persecuted_, _blistered_, and _fired_,
for a LAMENESS in _one_ part, which ultimately proves to be in
_another_; and this alone sufficiently points out the absolute necessity
of a deliberate discrimination. As lameness proceeds from different
causes, so it is of different kinds, and requires various modes of
treatment, equally opposite to each other. This cannot be more forcibly
elucidated, than by adverting to the difference between a lameness
originating in a relaxation of the SINEWS, and a ligamentary injury
sustained by a sudden _turn_, _twist_, or _distortion_, of some
particular JOINT. These require a very different mode of treatment; and
yet it is too much, and too unthinkingly the custom, to treat every kind
of lameness in the same way. From either a want of patience in the
owner, or a want of prudence in the practitioner, the favourite
operation of BLISTERING is thought applicable to _every case_ without
exception; and being often resorted to before the inflammation of the
part has sufficiently subsided, occasions a permanent enlargement, with
a thickening of the integument, and consequent stiffness, rendering the
remedy equally injurious with the original defect.
In all lamenesses occasioned by a relaxation of the TENDONS, blistering,
and even firing, are admitted to have a forcible effect, provided they
are brought into use at a PROPER time; but not _before_ the inflammation
(which is generally attendant upon such case) has previously subdued. In
all ligamentary injuries, BLISTERING is seldom, if ever, known to be
productive of permanent advantage; and is, perhaps, upon most occasions,
so immediately adopted, because a _single_ application is of so much
less _personal trouble_, than a daily persevering hour bestowed in hot
FOMENTATIONS, and stimulative EMBROCATIONS. Upon the subject of lameness
in general, it is necessary to remark, that injuries sustained in the
tendons (commonly called the back sinews) are more frequently relieved,
and a lasting cure obtained, than in a lameness of the joints; where,
after patient and persevering medical applications, and a corresponding
portion of REST, a renewal of work has almost immediately produced a
relapse.
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