e and depilating vesicant upon a large area on
the gluteal or crural region, in a case where the practitioner "guesses"
the condition to be one of "hip lameness," constitutes an exposition of
gross ignorance, and at once stamps the perpetrator as a crude bungler
without scientific insight whose works are no credit to his profession.
How much better it would be, if the practitioner does not see fit to
call in a competent consultant, to prescribe a suitable agent to be
given internally, and to recommend complete rest for the subject.

In establishing a diagnosis in such cases, the student or practitioner
seldom has recourse to laboratory assistance, and his work is done by
means of physical examination; therefore, a thorough knowledge and a
clear conception of the physiology of locomotion are essential.
Memorizing nosological facts without an understanding of underlying
principles is of no more practical benefit for qualification as a
diagnostician in cases of lameness, than is the employment of similar
methods in the study of theory and practice. A knowledge of the dosage
of drugs does not in itself qualify one as being competent to administer
such therapeutic agents to a proper effect. How much is a practitioner
benefited by the knowledge that a high temperature is usually present in
septic intoxication, if he is not possessed of a scientific
understanding of anatomy, physiology, bacteriology and pathology, as
well as the principles of clinical diagnosis?

In order to determine the reasons for certain symptoms manifested by the
subject, an analysis of these symptoms is the proper method of
procedure, insofar as this is possible. If one may reason that an animal
assumes a certain position while at rest to allow relaxation of an
inflamed tendon or ligament, such a fact enables the diagnostician to
recall that this is indicative of some specific ailment. In acute
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 obsc