466 CONTRACTION. 



tion is not directly referrible to the contraction. Rather, it is 

 much more likely to be excited by some concussion or contusion 

 sustained by the narrowed foot in action, to the production of 

 which no doubt the contracted, unyielding, rigid condition of 

 the hoof has mainly contributed. But the time is come for us 

 to consider 



Mixed Contraction — that kind of contraction which does 

 occasion lameness — is contraction in combination with inflamma- 

 tion, or some one or other of its consequences. Now that we 

 know so much about navicularthritis, we can readily understand 

 how it was that Coleman was so continually deluding himself 

 and others by ascribing lameness to contraction. At the time he 

 did so he was ignorant, if not of the very existence at all events 

 of the great prevalence, of disease of the navicular joint. He 

 beheld the contraction, and beyond that there was nothing in his 

 eye to account for the lameness. He took the inflammation pre- 

 sent to be the consequence of the contraction ; not dreaming 

 that it depended upon a deep-seated lesion. Moorcroft ad- 

 vanced a step further towards the development of the real or 

 proximate cause of the lameness. He suggested the presence of 

 pure contraction, as distinguished from contraction connected 

 with deep-seated injui^y of the foot. To Turner, however, it was 

 left to discover in what this " deep-seated injury" consisted. 

 Through the unerring guidance of pathological anatomy he de- 

 monstrated that it was not the coflin-joint which was the seat of 

 injury, but the navicular joint. ** I have dissected all the 

 groggy feet 1 have been able to procure," says he, " and have 

 found the navicular joint diseased in every instance." But, is 

 a " groggy" foot a contracted foot] Not necessarily. Some- 

 times it is, sometimes it is not. Where then, let us inquire, is 

 the connexion between navicularthritis and contraction ] This 

 part of our subject has already undergone discussion* ; I need 

 therefore only repeat here, that although a horse exhibiting 

 navicularthritis may not have a contracted foot at the time, but 

 on the contrary, as we so often have occasion to remark, a good 

 open foot, still, from the repose while in the stable, and the fa- 



* Turn back to page 141 of this volume. 



