1 10 Management and Treatment of the Horse. 



affected with lameness in the foot as soon as 

 they are put to work ; whereas, had they been 

 kept up during the summer months and gently 

 exercised, their legs would have been quite fresh 

 and their feet in good condition ; less work would 

 have to be given to get them into hunting 

 condition, and the 0A\Tier would have sounder 

 horses with which to commence the season, and 

 laminitis would be known only as an ugly name. 

 Of the former character or type of this disease 

 many cases have come under my observation, in 

 some of which the animals had not been out of 

 their stables for weeks or months, and others 

 had had only their regular work, yet all were 

 attacked, with symptoms equally violent, with 

 the most virulent cases that have ever come 

 under my experience. This is one of the many 

 evidences of the justice of my distinction of 

 natural from unnatural or artificial phases of 

 laminitis, and which cannot be accounted for by 

 the general and popularly received theory that 

 this disease is the offspring of violence and 

 overwork. Surely, then, my theory is not ill- 

 founded; there must be some occult or mysterious 

 cause for this disease presenting itself under 

 the peculiar circumstances I have now related. 

 What, I have frequently asked mj^self, is this 

 hidden or undiscovered cause ? Is it idiosyncrasy, 

 or some peculiar element in the system of the 

 patient ? Is it cachexia, or a bad habit of the 

 body ? and when ruminating upon this subject, 

 I have frequently had brought to my recollection 

 the remark of Professor Spooner upon this form 



