389 



CLASS III. 



Lamenesses arising from Diseases of the Tissues 

 peculiar to the foot. 



General Observations on the Diseases of the Foot. 



While we hear but little complaint about diseases of the feet in 

 other animals, we are continually reminded of horses being "lame 

 in i\\eu feet." How is this? It is readily to be accounted for when 

 we come to consider the habits, or rather the usages, of one domes- 

 ticated animal as compared with those of another, and estimate the 

 facts elicited from them by the ascertained laws of physiology. A 

 physiological axiom of universal truth, and of especial application 

 in the present case, is, that a vital orgasm, the same as any ma- 

 chine of human invention, wears out and becomes liable to disorder 

 in pretty equal ratio to the use that is made of it. The horse 

 being an animal of action, of labour, of speed, and yet one that is 

 in the habit of lying down less, probably, than almost any other, 

 puts his feet to great and continual trials. He trots hard, and for 

 Jong together, as a hackney ; he gallops hard, and for long together, 

 and takes high and precipitous leaps, as a hunter ; while he strains 

 every nerve and sinew as a racer. And these feats of labour and 

 speed he very commonly performs either upon hard and rough 

 ground, or upon artificial roads and pavements of too unyielding a 

 description to make any return save that of concussion to the con- 

 tinual battering of the animal's hoofs. 



But the hoofs are found by experience to be insufficient protectors 

 to the feet ae^ainst the roads and pavements art has introduced for 

 purposes of communication; and the consequence has of necessity 

 been, the invention and employment oi horseshoes. And here we 

 have another prolific source of foot-lameness in horses ; and espe- 

 cially when considered in combination with the former : the two 

 together constituting the main causes of diseases incident to the 

 plantar organ. Nor shall we feel surprised at this when we come 

 to contemplate the intricate and beautiful mechanism of the interior 

 of the foot, and to consider how the functions of its several parts 

 are liable to be interfered with or obstructed, or the tissues them- 



