PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF FEET. 817 



coffin-bones; tendons and other strong bands, requiring 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-capsule 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 under less 

 than ordinary exertion. 



Fig. 723 represents another case of fractured navicular bone, 

 in which all the complications are still more manifestly extensive 



FIG. 723. 



than in the last. The foot that supplied this specimen was ob- 

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

 the history 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 upon 

 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 insignificant compared to what the explorer sees in the researches 

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



Jaye>* of structures unfolds its own tale. 



52 



