Knuckle, s. The joints of the fingers, protuberant when the fingers close; the joint of a calf; the articulation or joint of a plant.
Lace, s. A string, a cord; a snare, a gin.
Laceration, s. The act of tearing or rending; the breach made by tearing.
Lair, s. The couch of a boar, or wild beast; the place where deer harbour by day.
Lake, s. A large diffusion of inland water; a small plash of water; a middle colour betwixt ultramarine and vermilion.
Lame, a. Crippled, disabled in the limbs.
Lameness, s. The state of a cripple, loss or inability of limbs; imperfection, weakness.
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 subsided. 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 a hot fomentation, and stimulative embrocations.