ACUTE LAMINITIS. 399 



in pain, would, however, by a little attention, speedily correct so 

 flagrant an error in judgment; and if the hind feet were affected 

 also, they would not be placed flat and firm upon the ground, as in 

 nephritis ; added to which, the diagnostic characters of disease in 

 the kidneys will come to the practitioner's aid to further remove 

 all doubt on the question*. 



The Causes of acute Laminitis are said to be various. 

 There is one, however, among them so predominant and influential 

 in its character that it must never be lost sight of; and that is, 

 work; or what may be construed into violence done to the feet. 

 A horse, with high stamping action, going any great distance or 

 for any length of time upon a macadamized road, or hard ground or 

 pavement of any kind, will be a very likely subject for an attack of 

 the disease ; and particularly one who, from being idle or at rest and 

 unseasoned, is brought to do work of the kind suddenly and with- 

 out any preparation. After feats of trotting, galloping, hunting and 

 racing,^ horses become liable to an attack of laminitis, even though 

 every precautionary training have been practised ; but in cases 

 where no preparation has been made, as in the instance of horses 

 young and recently broke, comparatively little exertion will be 

 liable to bring it on. A five-year-old horse of my own, recently 

 broke into harness, was seized with acute laminitis, on a hot sum- 

 mer's day, when the ground was dry and hard, after a drive of not 

 more than five miles, and that at an exceedingly moderate pace. 

 And Mr. Braby, whose experience among cart and dray-horses is 

 acknowledgedly great and valuable, informs me, that young horses 

 of this description, when they first enter on their London work, are 

 particularly obnoxious to the disease, owing, he believes, to their 

 wearing heavy shoes, and working day after day in them upon 

 stone pavement; the injurious tendency of which is not a little 

 augmented by the great weight — as much as two tons on an 

 average — such horses while at work have to sustain upon their 

 backs. The bevelling of their shoes, as is customary, inwards — 

 in place of outwards — from throwing the superincumbent weight 

 upon the border of the crust of the hoof, and upon the nails pene- 

 trating it, may likewise conduce to such an untoward result. 

 * See the Author's " Hippopathology," vol. ii, p. 342. 



