18 ON THE NAVICULAR DISEASE. 



Salutary effect beyoiicl liIs pacG Oil a hard road, a bruise is the con- 



of weiVht and -, -i • > i i- i i 



motion com- scquence, and lameness is established. 



It is evident that, in the inactive state of the horse, 

 the limbs have no other weio-ht to sustain than the 

 mere gravity of the superincumbent matter, each 

 limb supporting only its share of the burthen ; but 

 when the animal is in motion, not only is the pres- 

 sure increased, but the entire weight of the fore 

 quarters, with the head and neck, being alternately 

 conveyed to each fore foot separately, a more fa- 

 vourable impression is made by that weight, and 

 thereby the partial contraction is prevented. 



This view of the matter, I flatter myself, will be 

 gratifying to the intelligent and observing Nimrod, 

 whose remarks on horses' feet have been much 

 questioned and scrutinized, because his practical 

 experience has taught him to be wholly indifferent 

 about those contracted hoofs, in which the small 

 bone of the foot is sound : he ridicules the compres- 

 sion on the great bone, the coffin, because there is 

 no joint cramped, and therefore no lameness. 



He is forcibly struck with this, from the variety 

 of navicular specimens I have had the gratification 

 of shewing this distinguished character of the sport- 

 ing world : he well knows that many a five-hundred- 

 o'uinea-hunter has sunk, to rise no more, down to 

 fifteen in a very short space of time, from the ravage 

 of the navicular disease alone. In some instances, 

 this direful malady occupies no more space in the 



