DISEASES AND AUGMENTS OF HORSES, ETC. l'}7 



imsoimd horse, nerving being an organic defect. 

 See Best v. Osborne {a). 



Laminitis, or Chronic Fever ix the Feet. — Laminitis, 

 This disease, as it alters the structure of a horse's oL *^"^ '°" 

 foot, is undoubtedly unsoundness. Sometimes 

 this defect is called, chronic founder. Properly- 

 speaking, fever in the foot is the commencement 

 of laminitis, which is, really, inflammation of the 

 sensible lamincc, which connect the coffin bono 

 witli the crust of the foot. More horses are re- 

 jected as imsound on account of this disease than 

 from any other cause, and not always with reason, 

 as the development of fever is very rapid. It 

 happens that a horse is kept well to prepare the 

 animal to go to a sale or fair. It is known that 

 the majority of horse buyers think more of condi- 

 tion of flesh than of condition of muscle ; so flesh 

 is put on a horse before it goes for sale, by all 

 sorts of food, at the expense of possible inflamma- 

 tion. Even dealers think a fat horse, with a sleek 

 skin and a long tail, more worth looking at than 

 another whose ribs may perhaps show, but whose 

 crest and withers feel like real condition. The 

 consequence is, many horses sent for sale are pre- 

 disposed for fevers of all kinds. After standing 

 about in rain or snow for hours, and after havinjr 

 been run up and down, as the saying is, they go 



(fl) R. & M. 290 ; 2 C. & P. 74. 



