156 SYMPTOMS OF NAVICULARTHRITIS. 



foot pointed : revealing, as it were, himself the nature of his malady 

 at the very time it is being inquired into. Dr. Brauell, as I said 

 before, declares pointing to be the earliest indication of navicular- 

 thritis ; and for my own part I think this very probable, notwith- 

 standing it seems not to have attracted notice as such by our own 

 veterinarians. This will hardly be wondered at, however, when 

 we come to consider that lame horses are brought to us out of other 

 persons' stables, and that pointing with many horses, especially on 

 a first or recent attack, is a symptom by no means so ready of de- 

 tection as many may imagine, even after lameness is set in ; and 

 therefore it is no uncommon thing for pointing to be denied alto- 

 gether, both by the groom and master of the horse. Mr. Turner 

 has cautioned us against being deceived by such representations. 

 " My rule," says he, " is never to place reliance on this statement; 

 and therefore on a quiet examination in the stable, unobserved by 

 the animal himself, I generally catch him in the fact : probably not 

 extending the lame foot out a yard before him, but projecting only 

 about a hand's breadth beyond the other foot," &c. In making 

 such observations, however, and drawing our conclusions from them, 

 it must be borne in mind that there are horses quite free from 

 lameness who point the foot from habit — who stand so for ease — 

 make it, in fact, their natural standing posture. Horses in years, 

 and who are stale on their legs, sound though they be in their 

 work, very often get into a habit of what is called " shifting their 

 legs" in their stalls, i. e. standing first upon one foot, then upon 

 the other, pointing or resting them by turns. It is but natural that 

 the animal should point the foot in pain, or, in other words, take 

 his weight off it, the same as we find another horse doing whose 

 foot has been pricked in shoeing, or has picked up a nail ; and this 

 it is that makes pointing a symptom of so much importance in our 

 diagnosis. We appear to be assured by it, that, whatever the 

 malady may be, the foot is the seat of it; and that we may make 

 this assurance doubly sure in our diagnosis, we must ascertain that 

 it is invariably with the same foot the pointing has been observed. 

 Heat of Foot, though one of the ordinary symptoms of navi- 

 cularthritis, will not be present in every stage of the lameness. 

 When a horse, for example, falls lame on the road on a sudden, 



