CHRONIC FOUNDER PUMICED FEET. 805 



tion with the proprietor of the horse whether he will suffer the 

 medical treatment to proceed.* 



CHRONIC FOUNDER. 



Tliis is a species of founder, insidious in its attack, and des- 

 tructive to the horse. It is a milder form of the preceding dis- 

 ease. There is lameness, but it is not so severe as in the former 

 case. The horse stands as usual. The crust is warm, and that 

 warmth is constant, but it is not often probably greater than in 

 a state of health. The surest symptoms is the action of the ani- 

 mal. It is diametrically opposite to that in the navicular disease. 

 The horse throws as much of his weight as he can, on the poste- 

 rior parts of his feet. 



T lie treatment should be similar to that recommended for the 

 acute disease — blood-letting, soultices, fomentations, and blisters, 

 and the last much sooner and much more frequently than in the 

 former disease. 



PUMICED FEET. 



The sensible and horny little plates which were elongated and 

 partially separated during the intensity of the inflammation of 

 founder, will not always perfectly unite again, or will have lost 



* Note by Mr. Spooner. — Laminitls, or inflammation of the lamince of the 

 feet (or acute founder), though often occasioned by long-continued exertion 

 on the hard road, is not produced by galloping on the turf, and, indeed, 

 scarcely ever affects race-horses. Heavier breeds are more liable, and par 

 ticularly when the feet are weak in proportion to the weight of the animal. 

 When horses work on soft ground, the sole and the frog bear some propor- 

 tion of the weight, but on the hard road the shoe alone conies in contact 

 with the ground, and consequently the crust and the laminae bear the whole 

 of the weight, and thus are exposed to inflammatory action from this cause. 

 Some relief, however, is obtained by the feet being alternately in the air and 

 on the ground ; but when horses are confined many days in a standing pos- 

 ture, as on board ship, the laminae are almost constantly on the stretch ; 

 this disease, therefore, very frequently follows a voyage, and has often at- 

 tacked troop-horses, particularly Avhen the voyage lias been rough and of 

 undue continuance. When, however, laminitis suspenses as a seconilary 

 disease, the prior disorder afi'ects a similar tissue as the otlier ; thus it is 

 when pleurisy is succeeded with laminitis, both the pleura and the laminae 

 being fibrous tissues and of the same character. Such likew^ise is the case 

 when acute rheumatism is the prior disease. 



With regard to treatment, the most energetic measures must be aaopred, 

 as advised in the text. It is not however judicious to bleed a second time 

 in the feet, but better to repeat the bleeding from the arm.s or the coronets. 

 When a blister is applied its effects should be washed oft' the following day, 

 by doing which it can be repeated several times. Bleeding, however, is tho 

 sheet-anchor, and there is generally a capability of bearing a large deph- 

 tion., 20 



