296 VETERINARY HOMCEOPATHY. 



touched by the knifes we are quite aware that the promulgation 

 of such ideas does not meet with a favorable reception even by 

 those whom it most concerns, and very naturally meets with the 

 active opposition of shoeing smiths; these are features in the dis- 

 cussion, however, which do not concern us; we have to advocate 

 what we believe to be in the best interests of the horse and the 

 liorse owner, and fearlessly we affirm that horses generally would 

 do far better without shoes, provided the foot has never been 

 pared or cut with the drawing knife. 



Among the diseases affecting the foot are ossification of the 

 lateral cartilages known as side bones: navicular disease, a 

 very frequent cause of lameness among town-worked horses of the 

 lighter class, due to inflammation of the small bone known as the 

 ' ' navicular, ' ' over which the tendon passes and plays like a pulley 

 before it becomes inserted into the main bone of the foot; this 

 ciondition can be recognized by contraction of the heels, and the 

 short pottering style of action that subjects of this disease affect; 

 it generally attacks both fore feet,. and hence there is no drop- 

 ping to indicate special lameness in a particular limb, a condition 

 frequently availed of by ignorant or deceitful men to pronounce 

 the animal sound; as the inflammation of the bone progresses, it 

 ultimately results in an ulcerated, and consequently very sore, 

 condition of the articulatory surface over which the perforans 

 tendon plays; in this manner the diseased process extends to the 

 tendon, the fibres of which become degenerated, and in the long 

 run many of them are ruptured. When a horse is the subject of 

 navicular disease, he may be observed, while in the stable, point- 

 ing first one foot and then the other; on coming out of the stable 

 he will move like " a cat on hot bricks;" after going some dis- 

 tance and ''getting warm,'" the worst features of the tenderness 

 wear off, and the animal assumes a bolder style of action; let the 

 horse, however, stand still for a time and get cool, and all the 

 original cramped action recurs; further evidence of the existence 

 of this diseased condition is presented by heat, tenderness and 

 redness in the hollow of the heel, upon pressure being brought to 

 bear on these parts; but the most conclusive evidence of its exist- 

 ence is obtained from the peculiar stiff gait and stilty action that 

 characterizes the movement of an animal suffering therefrom. 

 The treatment of old-standiug cases of navicular disease is very 



