162 NAVICULARTHRITIS. 



the sound foot while the lame foot continues unrestored, the horse 

 being now lame from navicularthritis in both feet, we may consi- 

 der that the foundation has been laid for that deplorable state we 

 call 



Grogginess, or Groggy Lameness. 



In adopting which vulgar but significant appellations as the 

 heading of this division of my subject, I, with Mr. Turner, regard 

 them as synonyms of navicularthritis, with this additional mean- 

 ing, — that, to constitute grogginess, the lameness from navicular- 

 thritis or its sequela?, must be present in hotli fore feet, in place of 

 but one. There can be no doubt but that the epithet "groggy" — 

 comparatively a modern one — was suggested by the unsteady, 

 rolling, unsafe action of the lame horse being compared to that of 

 a drunken man ; and though in former days such was commonly 

 connected with knuckling-over of the fore fetlock joints, and the 

 tottering standing which such an insecure posture necessarily pro- 

 duces, yet have the pathological researches of later times demon- 

 strated that veritable groggy lameness has its origin in navicular- 

 thritis and its consequences. When horses from long or excessive 

 work are what is called "shook" in their joints, such will add to 

 their unsteadiness and want of stability, or, it is possible, may of 

 itself produce an action that might be mistaken for " g^ogg3^" 

 Indeed, the loss of elasticity which the limbs of very old horses in 

 the course of nature sustain, combined with the effects on them of 

 excessive strain and work, produce a stilty, concussive, bone- 

 shaking action of them, which, it appears to me, was what old 

 writers on farriery meant to denote by the denomination of *' shoul- 

 der-shotten ;" but which is certainly not — has, in fact, no connec- 

 tion whatever with — what we call grogginess. I have myself 

 seen horses, young in years and perfectly fresh on their legs, and 

 sound in their feet, that have, after a month or two of what is 

 called "shoulder-in" work in a riding-school, exhibited all the 

 symptoms of the so-called " slioulder-shotten" or "shooken;" cases 

 which at first I did not understand, but whose nature I afterwards 

 came fully to comprehend, and at the same time learnt that the 



