178 On the General Treatment of the Feet. 



partake more of the nature of ligament than of Cartilage, they may^ 

 nevertheless, undergo the change in question, though perhaps not 

 quite so readily, as if they were cartilaginous. Of their occasional 

 ossification, in fact, there can be no doubt ; as I have seen hundreds 

 of instances of diseased coffin bones, where the projecting ossified 

 points of the previously elastic fibres, completely studded the bone. 



The only doubt, therefore, in my mind, which attaches to the affair 

 of the ossification of these fibres, is, whether this change in their 

 structure be or be not, uniformly attended with inflammation. 



For, if it should turn out, (as 1 strongly suspect to be the case,) 

 that the process of ossification in them, is not necessarily attended 

 with inflammation, then shall we obtain a clue which will enable us 

 to solve one of the most embarrassing difficulties that occasionally 

 hang over the subject of the seat of lamenes.s, inasmuch, as we now 

 and then find instances, of Horses being lame in the feet, without 

 any considerable contraction of the heels and quarters, or any per- 

 ceptible increase of heat in the hoofs. 



But, it is time that I quit this track of investigation, which some 

 may think foreign to the title and avowed nature of my work, in 

 order to hasten to the conclusions which I consider fairly deducible 

 from the foregoing arguments. 



The practical inference, therefore, which I am inclined to draw 

 from what has been advanced, is the following, namely, that there 

 is a species of Founder, which so far as relates to the time occupied 

 in its approach and development, holds a sort of mean between acute 

 inflammation of the feet, which sometimes proves fatal in a day or 

 two, and that chronic inflammation which always accompanies, more 

 or less, contraction of the heels and quarters. n 



