tendinitis, the subject while at rest, maintains the affected member in
volar flexion because this position permits relaxation of the inhibitory
apparatus, including the inflamed tendon. Likewise, the various abnormal
positions assumed,--adduction, abduction, undue flexion or
pointing--have their own significance and are taken into account by the
trained diagnostician in the course of an examination.

In the examination of lame subjects, where the cause is not obvious, a
systematic method of diagnosis is pursued even by the most expert
practitioners. In all obscure cases of lameness a methodical and
thoroughly practical examination of the animal according to an
established procedure is necessary to determine the nature and source of
the affliction.


Anamnesis.

The first thing to be given consideration in diagnosis is the fact that
related history of the case is not always dependable, because of lack of
accurate observation or wilful deceit on the part of the owner or
attendant. The successful veterinarian soon acquires the faculty of
obtaining information in a manner best adapted to his client,--either by
direct interrogation or by subtle means of suggestion, and in this way
he draws out evaded facts essential to his diagnosis. In time he learns
to make allowance for misstatements made to shield the owner or driver
and to hide the facts of apparent neglect or abuse that the subject may
have experienced. A suppurating cartilaginous quittor, complicated by
the presence of a large amount of hyperplastic tissue, cannot be
successfully represented to be an acute and recently developed
affection, where a trained practitioner is left to judge the validity of