332 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



horn of the wall. It is usually due to an injury in the 

 region of the coronary substance, which is in consequence 

 stimulated to increased action, and produces an abnormal 

 growth of horn, which is harder than the normal growth, 

 flat in appearance, and at first sight the condition looks 

 much like sand-crack, but an examination suffices to reveal 

 its true character. As a rule it is not looked upon as an 

 unsoundness. 



Treatinenf. — False c^uarter will remain through life, and 

 treatment is rarely adopted. 



NAVICULAR DISEASE. 



This disease is also known by the names of coffin-joint 

 lameness, contraction, etc., the latter name being the one 

 commonly applied to the disease fifty or seventy-five years 

 ago, as it was then supposed that the contraction was the 

 cause of the accompanying lameness ; now it is known 

 that contraction is not a disease of itself, but occurs as a 

 sym2:)tom or result of disease, as navicular disease for in- 

 stance. Laminitis in its subacute and chronic forms also 

 has a tendency to cause contraction of the hoof, and it also 

 occurs as a natural result of improper shoeing. Atrophy 

 is a better term to apply to the condition, as the hoof 

 contracts in consequence of atrophy of the structures con- 

 tained within it. 



Navicular disease may be defined to be an inflammation 

 set up in the navicular bone, bursa, or the flexor pedis per- 

 forans tendon. Considerable discussion has been caused, 

 and much diff'erence of opinion is held in regard to which 

 of the above structures is the first to become aff'ected by the 

 inflammatory process. The generally received opinion now 

 is, that while the disease may originate in any of the 

 structures previously mentioned, it originates, at least in a 

 large majority of cases, in the bone or cartilage, but occa- 



