PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF FEET. 



817 



cofiin-bonea ; tendons and other strong bands, requiinng strong, bony 

 points for attachment, lack such hold, and the space between the 

 navicular bone and the tendon'upon which it glides is diminished ; the 

 joint-capside lacks space, all the functions are deranged, and the 

 navicular bone, if in normal condition, would be too big for the 

 lessened space; it becomes flattened, its substance is diminished, 

 and is so much weakened, that at length it breaks down imder less 

 than ordinary exertion. 



Fig. 723 represents another ease of fractured navicular bone, 

 in Avhich all the complications arc still more manifestly extensive 



Fi( 



28. 



than in the last. The f(»ot that su])plied this specimen was ob- 

 tained after the horse was slaughtered, and nothing was leanied of 

 the histor}' of the case. 



The fractures in both cases had occurred long before the horses 

 were destroyed, and there was ample evidence to my mind that the 

 horses had been made to work almost as long as they lived, judg- 

 ing, as I did, by the appearance of the feet and shoes, and by the 

 pathological conditions revealed by dissection. It may seem to 

 some that there is not much to be learned from seeing these dried 

 bones! still less from engravings from them! All depends u])on 

 the kind and extent of research which follows from the promptings 

 of such incidents; and I cannot refrain from stating that all that 

 is presented to the view, though it be as much as could be saved, 

 is insigniticant compared to Avhat the explorer sees in the researches 

 and dissection. Much more is removed than can be left, and each 



layer of structures unfolds its own tale. 



52 



