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condition of pain, arising from pressure upon the delicately 

 sensitive nervous organization of the foot that keeps the afflicted 

 animal so long verging upon the " ragged edge " of misery, 

 that even the atmospheric changes, and the fluctuations of 

 dietetic and other influences, are sufficient to keep it constantly 

 approaching to, or receding from, the line that separates the 

 absolute from the relative disability of the animal for the per- 

 formance of its duties. A severer degree of pain, a little over- 

 tasking of the tissues, an apparently slight accidental injury, 

 or the known sympathy that exists between the skin, the visceral 

 organs, and the feet through the medium of the nervous sys- 

 tems, will often then be sufficient to precipitate a crisis that 

 shall topple the animal over the " ragged edge " into the abysses 

 of positive pain, and misery, or of possible destruction. 



POSSIBLE CAUSE OF STRINGHALT. 



There is yet another mysterious affection of the nerves whose 

 etiology is of the most doubtful character, and whose origin 

 has been ascribed to various parts of the nervous system, but 

 never before, as far as I am aware, to the region of the foot, or 

 even suspected as having the remotest connection with a dis- 

 ordered condition of the nerves of the foot. 



Pressure /;w// within or without, affecting the nervous organ- 

 ization of the foot, and especially, perhaps, those delicate 

 fibrillar that control the action of the secreting organs, I opine 

 to be a cause, if not the cause, of the affection commonly called 

 Stringhalt, since I have found the relief of pressure by the use 

 of the dilator to relax the severity of the spasmodic action of 

 this affection. It is fortunately not a destructive one except 

 in a few rare instances. This subject will be more fully con- 

 sidered in the Article on Stringhalt. 



