ON THE NAVICULAR DISEASE. 15 



conceive, that for any one of those contracted feet 

 to be free from lameness, unaffected by quick work, 

 the progress of the contraction must have been as 

 gradual as the process of nature in the renovation or 

 formation of parts, by constant, though impercepti- 

 ble, absorption and deposit. The living or sensitive 

 parts of the foot have, by decrease, adapted them- 

 selves to the diminished capacity of the insensible 

 horny box ; and that this frequently occurs without 

 pain to the animals is evident by their perform- 

 ances, and their situation is by no means analogous 

 to the human foot when distressed by a tight shoe. 

 I therefore draw this inference, — that qeneral con- Hamiessness 



•^ of the general 



traction of the horse's foot may take place to a o^reat contraction 



••' *■ o compared with 



extent with impunity; but that it is the partial "^^^1^'-'^°^^^''^'^' 

 contraction or morbid pressure on the navicular 

 joint which is the root of the evil. 



With regard to the harmlessness of general con- 

 traction, abstractedly considered, I think I am suffi- 

 ciently borne out by the thousands and tens of Tl'*" navicular 



^ ^ joint disease 



thousands of contracted hiyid feet, which have al-r^"l.'*V *^® 



' tore feet. 



ways carried their share of the burthen to the end of 

 many a horse that had never received or required 

 the veterinarian's skill. 



No man has ever been heard to bewail the loss of 

 his horse from being groggy behind ; but I will 

 venture to assert, that the public have sustained a 

 greater loss of valuable horse-flesh from the havock ^}^ ''i^^!"^ 



o dreadiul. 



of this disease alone in the fore feet, than from all 



