ure 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
the statement.

In complicated conditions, where there is evident a chronic disturbance
which could not be conceived as sufficient cause for a marked
manifestation of lameness, accurate history of the case may be of great
aid in arriving at a diagnosis. An aged animal, having recently become
very lame, showing a small exostosis on the first phalanx, and with the
history given that the osseous deposit was of long standing, should at
once lead the veterinarian to seek the source of trouble elsewhere.

Visual Examination.

As in all diagnostic work, a careful visual examination of the subject
should be made before it is approached. The novice is given to hasty
examination by palpation, not realizing how much may be revealed by a
careful scrutiny of the subject. In this way he is led to erroneous
conclusions which the skilled diagnostician has learned from experience
to avoid. _Too much emphasis cannot be placed on the importance of
making a thoughtful visual examination in every instance before the
subject is approached._ In this examination, type, conformation and
temperament are taken into account at once, for each of these qualities
is in itself, a determining factor in predisposing a subject to certain
ailments or inherent attributes, which may exert a favorable or
unfavorable influence upon existing conditions and th