148 NAVICULARTHRITIS. 



were it not for the lamince, that would suffer; whereas, the former 

 being relieved from pressure as well as concussion by the latter, we 

 find horses that are compelled to fatiguing efforts of standing, par- 

 ticularly in warm situations, not contracting disease of the coffin- 

 joint, but of the laminae — laminitis, or " fever in the feet," as the 

 malady is called ; and this is a complaint which on many occasions 

 has proved epidemic, and on board of ship in particular. 



Although predisposition may, and probably does, exist equally 

 in eilher foot, it is a rare circumstance for a horse to be attacked 

 with navicularthritis in both feet simultaneously, as rare as it is 

 for laminitis to be known to confine its attack to one foot. This 

 difference between two diseases affecting the foot admits of ready 

 and satisfactory explanation in the fact of the one having the ex- 

 citing cause applied equally to both feet, while in the other — navi- 

 cularthritis — the excitant will rarely operate but in one, either 

 from the circumstance of one foot being commonly made freer or 

 stronger use of than the other, or from the application of the cause 

 being commonly but to one foot. Most horses, from the habit of 

 leading in cantering or galloping with the off foot, exert the off 

 limb in action more than the near ; and I find, on referring to my 

 register, occurring within a given period of time, a proportion of 

 ninety-three cases of lameness in the off fore foot to seventy-six 

 in the near foot. 



The exciting Causes of navicularthritis will for the most part 

 be found under the heading of what we denominate " work;" a fact 

 all our experience but tends to confirm, the simplest result of ob- 

 servation being, that where most work is done there we find most 

 horses lame in the navicular joints. At the same time, this general 

 cause of the mischief will be more or less operative, as regards 

 navicularthritis or any disease in particular, accordingly as the 

 kind of work the horse performs, the kind of foot he is possessed of, 

 and the mode in which such foot is pared and shod, favours the 

 approach of this or that disease. That navicularthritis may occur 

 on a sudden, without there being any work in the question, from 

 some mis-step or false step, some spring or jump, or leap or stumble, 

 there is ample evidence to shew. A horse shall come fresh and 

 sound out of his stable, make a stumble or a jump, and all at once 



