JOINTS
.—The joints of horses are subject to rheumatic pains and affections, in some proportional degree with those of the human species, and require professional judgment to discriminate between what are really so, and what may proceed from other causes. Strict attention, and accurate observation, have clearly ascertained and established the fact, that horses are frequently attacked with, and labour under, a CHRONIC RHEUMATISM, which is as frequently treated like, and mistaken for, a confirmed lameness, erroneously supposed to have originated in a very different cause. The joints, notwithstanding the peculiar strength of their formation, are also liable to, and susceptible of, very serious, alarming and permanent injuries, by short turns, and sudden twists, out of as well as within the stable; and it is readily to be believed, more of these are occasioned by carelessness, inadvertency, and the most shameful inattention of servants, than from any accidental causes whatever.