136 NAVICULARTHLIITIS. 



foot receive unnatural pressure : by this alteration in the shape of 

 the hoof modern practitioners account for the lameness, the actual 

 cause of lameness being compared to the pressure of a tight shoe 

 upon the human foot. The result of my dissections was, the 

 discovery of an important joint within the hoof, so much diseased 

 as to be incapable of acting as a joint. 



Taking into consideration the extreme pain attendant upon the 

 destruction or merely inflammation in the interior of a joint, it 

 strikes me as being a more likely cause of lameness than con- 

 traction of the hoof; therefore, from this and the following prac- 

 tical facts, I entertain a different opinion. 



First. — The immense number of horses there are in this country 

 with narrow heels, whose feet are contracted, but not lame ; and 

 we have numerous instances of contraction to an extreme, feet 

 so distorted, from the length of the toe and the narrowness of the 

 heels, as to bear no resemblance to the circle which was the ori- 

 ginal form, and yet go perfectly sound. 



Secondly. — We are daily seeing groggy or lame horses con- 

 firmed cripples, with feet which, from external form, must be de- 

 clared good ; so fair in appearance, that no practitioner, upon 

 merely taking up the foot, would venture to pronounce it bad or 

 contracted, if he did not know at the same time that the horse was 

 a cripple. 



Thirdly. — The hind feet of many horses are much contracted, 

 but we have very few instances, if any, of lameness behind from 

 contraction. I think no practitioner has ever pronounced a horse 

 groggy behind. 



Fourthly. — ^The too many instances we meet with in practice of 

 the obstinate lameness remaining after we have removed the con- 

 traction. Many are the instances of groggy horses with con- 

 tracted hoofs, that after having been at grass for a considerable 

 time, perhaps for a whole year, whose feet have so altered as to 

 have become circular, and every purpose answered except the 

 principal one, the removal of the lameness. 



Fifthly. — The sudden manner in which they are frequently at- 

 tacked with this disease. Horses that were known never to have 

 been lame have become violently lame on the road, suddenly, with 



