Lameness

Lameness is commonly due to some abnormal condition either of the joints or of the muscles and fasciae of the lower limbs: mere difference in length between the two limbs, even to the extent of an inch or more, is not necessarily incompatible with a natural gait. It is generally one of the earliest symptoms of disease in the joints: and permanent stiffness of any of these, whether the result of disease or of injury, always involves some degree of lameness. The weakness and imperfect development of the muscles which usually follows infantile paralysis is one of the commonest muscular causes. Severe wounds or rupture of any of the important muscles must also be mentioned. Unnaturally shaped or ill-fitting boots, with the corns, bunions, distortion of toes, and other ill effects they produce, are a fertile source of lameness; but conditions thus produced are generally in some degree amenable to treatment. Among the causes most apt to be overlooked are the slighter degrees of flat-foot, of contraction of the calf-muscles, or other muscles whose tendons are inserted into the bones of the foot, and of the plantar fascia. See also the articles LEGS, ARTIFICIAL LIMBS, CLUB-FOOT, &c.