1856.] Founder and Diseases in ffjrses' Feet. 277 



ness have been termed founder. But what is more ordinarily so termed 

 IS the permanent result of a very acute disease, viz. : " fever in the 

 feet " or more properly, "laminitis." It was to the altered condition 

 ot the feet, which frequently follows an attack of laminitis, that the 

 term founder appears to have been originally applied; and when the 

 veterinarian adopts the phrase, it is in this peculiar sense. In the cases 

 indicated, the animal treads with the toe of the hoof turned up- the 

 horn of the sole is flat or pumiced, and resembling in appearance the 

 outside of an oyster shell; and in front of the hoof seems as if caved 

 m. It was to laminitis and its sequelae, founder, that Professor Stew- 

 art was adverting, where the editor so curtly differs in opinion P.efer 

 ence was made to only one phase of laminitis, and its consequences, 

 founder, viz. : where the occasion of the fever might have been indi ^estion 

 of food, and a gorged stomach; this is not a frequent cause; but^if in- 

 flammatory action is going on in the coats of the stomach, and there is 

 likewise local congestion from the organ being gorged with food, a revul- 

 sion of inflammation to the highly vascular laminated structure of the 

 hoofs is, medically speaking, a probable enough result. 



Any one acquainted with the anatomy of the foot and the specific 

 disease which occasions its lapse to the peculiar condition designated 

 founder, would readily comprehend the Professor's limited remark as 

 applicable to his then subject; but which was otherwise hurried and 

 loose. It may not be amiss to seize the present opportunity, and present 

 a brief description of the laminated structure of the foot, together with 

 this acute fever to which the same is liable, and its frequent conse- 

 quence, founder. 



The external surface of the horse's foot, or, as more usually termed, 

 the coffin-bone, is covered with a half muscular half membranous struc- 

 ture, denominated the sensitive or elastic lamina. This presents a series 

 of leaf-hke edges, something like the plaits on the surface of some 

 paper lamp-shades, but far more minute and numerous. This structure 

 IS very vascular, and it circulates a very extraordinary amount of arterial 

 blood. On the inner surface of the horny covering of the foot — the 

 hoof- there is a reverse series of plaits, of a half horny, half lica- 

 -mentous texture, resembling the inner side of a mushroom. These 

 plaits on the outer or convex surface of the coffin-bone, are interlaced 

 or locked with those lining the inner or concave surface of the hoof- 

 and on this union, or combination, every horse's weight and action is 

 ^hoby suspended and hinged. There are about five hundred of these 

 elas ic p.aits or laminae to each foot and they may be likened to minute 

 coach springs. From the numerous blood vessels and nervous sensibility 



