SYMPTOMS OF NAVICULARTHRITIS. 155 



The shoe being taken off, the foot is examined in other parts, 

 by means of the drawing-knife and pincers. It is possible, after 

 all, the case may turn out one of prick by a nail, or of the nail 

 being driven too " coarse," or of the foot being '' bound by the 

 shoe." Nothing of the kind we will say is demonstrable. The 

 sole cuts out dry and hard, and proves to be thick and strong, and 

 requires a great deal of its substance to be pared away to make it 

 " give" under the pressure of the thumb ; and when a sufficiency 

 has been pared away to produce this effect, the frog, left isolated 

 as it were, surprises us by its depth and prominence, while the 

 sole itself, through so much paring, has become an arch of striking 

 height and concavity. This is the state of hoof that constitutes 

 what Mr. Turner has called '' occult contraction ;" and to which 

 that gentleman has attached so great import in the production of 

 navicularthritis : his words being — " The occult or partial con- 

 traction abruptly opposes the navicular bone in its descent, and 

 thereby crushes or bruises the delicate synovial membrane lining 

 the joint, which suffers mechanical injury from the very material 

 which nature bestowed as a defence, and which has degenerated 

 into a hard, rigid, inelastic protuberance, no longer capable of 

 yielding and expanding under the superincumbent weight." And 

 in order that we may detect any difference there may exist in this 

 particular between the two fore feet, Mr. Turner very properly 

 recommends that both fore feet of the lame horse be unshod and 

 similarly pared out. I may, however, say of this symptom as I 

 said of other alterations or anormalities in the form and aspect of 

 the hoof — that it is one which belongs to the chronic or relapsed 

 case, and not to the recent one. Pending this investigation into 

 the state of the foot, we may, with a view of throwing additional 

 light on the nature of the case, put some questions to the master 

 of the horse or his groom, and it behoves us to be very particular 

 in putting the ail-important one. 



Does the Horse point the lame Foot ] i. e. does he stand 

 in his stable with his lame foot placed in advance of the other ? 

 Nay, it not very unfrequently happens that the animal at the very 

 time he is brought to us for advice, will, while his master or groom 

 is relating his ailment, stand all the while, in our presence, with his 



