AS TO S0?7XD.V£SS. 83 



they are symptoms of the most unreliable kind. A 

 hundred things will cause enlarged abdomen, from gross 

 feeding on succulent food, down to the most aggravated 

 tumour; and anything occupying the womb, no matter 

 whether it be a healthy, living foal, or a fibroid tumour, 

 may cause the udder to swell and fill with milk. A 

 g?'oiiJ> of symptoms constitutes a sign, but never can a 

 single symptom. I have said that we diagnose navicular 

 disease by the most unsatisfactory of methods, namely, 

 by absence of signs and the presence of symptoms. We 

 have lameness, and we fail to find signs of disease such as 

 would account for it, — as a hot tender splint, a gaping sand- 

 crack, or a suppurating corn. We have to all appearance, 

 it may be, a perfectly sound limb and a good irreproach- 

 able foot, but when the horse trots he goes lame, and 

 when he comes to stand he "points." Now I believe 

 that there neither is nor can be a greater delusion than 

 to suppose that "pointing " is a sign of navicular disease^ 

 It is no such thing; and as a symptom, which it un- 

 doubtedly is, I don't know of a more unreliable one. 

 Regarded as a sign, we have only to find out that a 

 horse, feeling pain in the back part of his foot, as for 

 instance from a corn, points, and it at once condemns 

 " pointing " as a sign of navicular disease. 



There is another delusion in the horse universe. Ex- 

 cepting among veterinary surgeons, and a very few others, 

 it is generally believed that where you have contracted 

 wiry heels you also must have navicular disease. Very 

 early on in these lectures I advised you always to pay 



