LAMINITIS. 393 



portion of the burthen they have to support, the weight of the head 

 and neck being added to that of half the body ; and also to the 

 concussion they sustain in action, as compared with that undergone 

 by the hind feet. When horses are standing on board of ship — 

 a situation in which the disease, or the predisposition to it at least, 

 has strongly marked itself — from rocking about with the motion of 

 the ship, the fore limbs, as props and stays to the body, are under- 

 going more than the hind ; and their duty under such circumstances 

 becomes, if long continued, both laborious and painful ; in which 

 condition the disease, or the aptitude to take it, ensues. The 

 battering the fore feet receive in action, and particularly when they 

 come flat down upon the ground, is a strong reason for their greater 

 susceptibility to disease than the hind, the force of whose tread 

 under exertion comes after it is grounded, and is sustained prin- 

 cipally by the toe of the foot. 



The Breed of Horse and Kind of Foot most liable to take 

 the disease, from my own observation, 1 should pronounce to be 

 the under-bred horse and cart-horse, possessing the characteristic 

 foot of the family, viz. the flat, broad, spreading foot. When high- 

 bred horses, having upright oblong feet, become attacked with 

 laminitis, there generally exists some manifest exciting cause. 

 This is a point, however, on which there is some strange difTerence 

 of opinion : D'Arboval asserting that the narrow foot, clothed with 

 a hard, tough, compact hoof, is the most susceptible ; while Giraud 

 is of the same opinion as myself; remarking, however, that when- 

 ever the disease does attack the strong foot, it is more painful to 

 bear* Mr. Spooner, in his edition of White, says, " it most fre- 

 quently attacks horses whose crusts and laminae are weak and very 

 obliquely placed." And, if we come to reason on the matter, it 

 seems but natural that such should be the case, since in such kind 

 of feet the laminae are most called into action. In feet disposed to 

 take the disease, shoeing may have something to do with its pro- 

 duction. The taking of the bearing of the shoe off those parts of 

 the sole which are in union with the crust, and which are able to bear 

 it, and throwing the entire stress upon the edge of the crust and 

 upon the nails, as too commonly is done in ordinary shoeing, may 

 conduce to the production of such a disease. Likewise horses 

 VOL. IV. 3 e 



