CONTKACTION. 467 



vouring at the time of going, such foot will be sure to experience, 

 will it in time become a contracted foot. And this it is that, in 

 the majority of Cases, constitutes the chronic, hoof-bound, too 

 often incurable, lame horse. Indeed, it matters little what the 

 form of the foot is at the time of the attack of navicularthritis. 

 Long duration or repetition of lameness will be sure to induce 

 contraction sooner or later ; and, in the end, contraction will forn* 

 a feature in the case strong enough to mislead those who may not 

 be acquainted with its history, or know enough of hippopatho- 

 logy to reason properly on it. The seat of lesion giving rise to 

 the inflammation present in contraction accompanied by lame- 

 ness, will very well account for the horse continually going upon 

 his toe, without supposing it to arise, as Coleman curiously enough 

 did, from disease of the lamince. But, will it account for the 

 heat we so invariably feel, not in front alone, but all round the 

 wail of the hoof, and for the heat, and tumidity as well, of the 

 coronet ] I think it will, very satisfactorily, when we come to 

 consider that, contraction not being a primary or immediate, but 

 a secondary and remote consequence of navicularthritis, at the 

 period it makes its appearance inflammation must either have 

 existed for some time, or be in some relapsed, perhaps aggra- 

 vated form ; and that therefore it has not confined itself to the 

 posterior but has extended to the anterior parts of the foot : in 

 fact, has spread generally over the whole internal foot. And 

 when we come further to remember that the inflammation is 

 said to run sometimes high enough in navicularthritis to cause 

 the pastern arteries to " throb," we need feel no surprise that the 

 pastern, or coronet rather, should evince heat and take to tumefy. 

 Prevention of Contraction. If the principles I have laid 

 down be in accordance with the results of accurate observation, 

 shoeing must be regarded as the main cause, indirect though it 

 be, of contraction; and to the modification or correction of it must 

 we look for the prophylactic. Shoeing, as it respects horses, 

 has been said to be "a necessary evil." Without shoes, upon 

 our artificial roads we cannot make use of horses; and no shoes 

 have been found to answer save such as are hard and inflexible 



