400 ACUTE LAMINITIS. 



The act of standing for any great length of time upon any dry 

 hard surface, particularly when watchfulness and nriore or less exer- 

 tion on the part of the animal is continually required to maintain 

 that standing, as is the case with horses on board of ship, has been 

 known to produce the disease extensively. And that it is the 

 continuance of the standing posture which causes the evil, ap- 

 pears from the fact of such horses commonly escaping the disease 

 as are known to crouch or sit in the ship. In the expedition 

 to Corunna, the late Mr. Castley had an excellent opportunity of 

 observing this. That beautiful brigade of cavalry, consisting of 

 the 7th, 10th, and 15th Hussars, landed at Corunna about the 

 20th Nov. 1808. They had been on ship-board, owing to con- 

 trary winds, upwards of three weeks. A few days after disem- 

 barking, they marched up the country, by squadrons, in daily suc- 

 cession, occasioning, thereby, the last squadron to be later in its 

 march by nine days than the first. Mr. Castley himself marched 

 a day after the last squadron, an^ found at Betanzos, the first stage, 

 twenty horses left behind with fever in their feet, the greater part 

 of them belonging to the squadron that marched ^rs^ from Corunna. 

 And such continued to be the case, more or less, all along the line 

 of march. Still, the first suffered much more than those that 

 marched last ; a circumstance inducing Mr. Castley to believe that 

 the immediate exertion the horses were put to, after having stood 

 upon their feet so long on board of ship, had much to do in causing 

 the disease. The suspension girths with which ships are now, or 

 ought to be, fitted up, together with a clay or other soft and cool 

 standing, is the precaution recommended to be adopted to pre- 

 vent this grievous consequence. Railroad travelling, when the 

 journey or long continuance in the train comes to be great, is not 

 unlikely to have similar evil tendency. 



Drinking a large quantity of cold water while heated has, it is 

 said, I believe on sufficient authority, been followed by laminitis. 

 The ancients thought so, and modern practice seems to confirm 

 this. Gorged stomach, likewise, has been known to occasion the 

 disease. In the same volume of THE VETERINARIAN* from which 



* Vetekinaeian for 1830, vol. iii, p. 198-9. 



