The Foot — Laminitis. loy 



the rings ; if the foot has been rasped up to the 

 hair, look upon it with suspicion, for laminitis is 

 a disease so dreadful in its manifestations, and 

 attended with such agony and excessive distress 

 to the poor patient, that it cannot fail to excite 

 compassion for it from all who witness a case of 

 this terrible type. I can assure my readers that 

 I myself have been so affected that I would not 

 — nay, I could not — leave my patient until I was 

 satisfied that all had been done so far as know- 

 ledge lay Avithin my reach to relieve it at least of 

 some portion of its sufferings. . . . The first and 

 most obvious requisite for a practical groom is to 

 possess the faculty to diagnose a disease when he 

 sees it, to distinguish it from others manifesting 

 similar symptoms, and foresee its probable phases 

 and results ; and the author, knowing the diffi- 

 culties he has had to contend with in his search 

 after knowledge concerning the horse, wishes to 

 place his experience in the hands of younger 

 men, to help them to surmount the difficulties 

 and avoid the stumbling-stones it has been his 

 lot to fall over. No man, whatever may be his 

 pursuits, deserves the name of a practical man 

 whose knowledo^e and resources are limited to 

 the experience of his predecessors in a similar 

 walk of life, or who cannot and dare not experi- 

 ment or reason for himself. 



Whatever theories I may advance from time to 

 time, they are confined strictly to facts, and are 

 the result of practical experiment by myself or 

 others, whose names I give. In all professions, 

 and in none more so than in the practice of 



