LAMINITIS. 391 



condition of the patient. Calling the animal "foundered'' literally 

 signifies, in the language of our dictionaries, that he is " in a ruined 

 or ruinous state or condition ;" a meaning assumed on the authority 

 of our oldest writers. Chaucer says, 



" His hors lepte aside and foundered as he lepte ;" 



that is, fell to the ground (fundus) or grounded, the same as a foun- 

 dered ship is said to do. For general use, I prefer the name lami- 

 nitis, on account of its scientific origin, as well as for its brevity ; 

 although I am not quite sure that it is comprehensive enough in 

 its import to be free from objection*. 



Horses, though the especial, do not appear to be the 

 EXCLUSIVE Subjects of the disease. In The Veterinarian 

 for 1835, Mr. Ball, of Launceston. has related the case of a milch 

 cow who, after calving, " caught a chill, which first settled itself in 

 the udder and partly in the feet ; " but was subsequently, " by 

 some topical application" to the former, translated into the fore 

 feet, ''causing the poor beast to hobble along like a foundered 

 horse." The cow recovered under Mr. Ball's treatment, though it 

 was administered late. Such comprises the substance of a narra- 

 tive which would have been more valuable had it been more cir- 

 cumstantial and amplified. D'Arboval accounts for the disease 

 being especially seen in the solipede animal, from the hoof in which 

 the foot is inclosed being one single, hard, resisting case, insus- 

 ceptible of expansion — in his own words, " qui n'est pas susceptible 

 de ceder" — and from the foot, in consequence, being more likely to 

 breed such a malady than one that is cleft or divided after the 

 fashion of the hoof of the didactyle. 



Mr. Gregory, V.S., Bideford, has corroborated this occasional 

 extension of the disease to the didactyle. 



. " Amongst my employers," says Mr. G., "are some cattle-dealers 

 who buy very largely of young oxen or steers (as they are called 

 here in the west). Some of them are driven from fairs and 

 markets for a considerable distance, to be kept for a month or two 

 to freshen on the farms of my clients previous to their being offered 



* Professor Vatel calls the disease Podophyllitis, a better name for it, pro- 

 bably, than laminitis. 



