79 



themselves are occasionally productive of the most serious con- 

 sequences. 



« The most apparently trivial cause may lead only to temporary 

 lameness, or may be followed by the most destructive onslaughts 

 of canker or of lock-jaw. These diseases will receive a careful 

 and extended consideration under their respective captions 

 in the section upon Diseases of the Feet. 



SOURCE OF PAIN IN THE FOOT. 



There are some morbid conditions that cannot be classed 

 among the specific diseases of the equine foot which may be 

 as well referred to here, perhaps, as elsewhere. I allude to 

 pain in the nerves of the various tissues that enter into the 

 composition of the foot. According to " Druitt," " The bones 

 like other parts are subject to that severe and continuous pain 

 which is known by the name of neuralgia." That the pedal 

 bone and its investing membrane is the frequent seat of neural- 

 gic pain, exposed as it is to so many injurious influences, both 

 local and constitutional, I cannot entertain the shadow of a 

 doubt. The same may also be predicated of the synovial and 

 other membranous structures, which are susceptible to acute 

 and sub-acute inflammation from local causes, such as external 

 pressure, concussions, strains, mechanical injuries, and espe- 

 cially penetrating wounds and from constitutional causes, as 

 exposure to cold ; contact with the excreta of the stable ; 

 breathing a vitiated atmosphere ; rheumatic and other blood 

 poisons both inherited and acquired ; and perhaps more than 

 all, the powerful sympathy that exists between the feet, the 

 mucous membranes of the lungs, stomach, and intestines, as 

 well as the skin, and the brain. 



The foot of the horse is more exposed to all these external 

 and internal influences than the foot of any other animal by 

 reason of its peculiar organization by which the circulation can 

 be so readily impeded, healthy assimilation prevented, the secre- 

 tory processes perverted, the nerve and other structures atro- 

 phied, the nerve-force weakened, and the various kinds and 

 degrees of nervous sensibility augmented or paralyzed. 



