44 ON THE NAVICULAR DISEASE. 



Difficult of ance, and the necessity there is for some practical 

 escription. j,y|gg being laid down, by which we may readily 

 pronounce on the existence or non-existence of this 

 joint disease ; but yet I cannot persuade myself 

 that I can represent on paper the rules which have 

 hitherto been my guide. Experience, however, 

 has enabled me to decide on these cases with con- 

 fidence, having devoted myself more particularly to 

 foot lamenesses. 



As we cannot have navicular lameness without 

 inflammation of some part of the joint, which may 

 be seated in the synovial membrane, or in the ten- 

 don forming the exterior of the joint, it may be as 

 well to advert to the known symptoms of inflamma- 

 tion : First, increased redness ; secondly, swelling ; 

 thirdly, pain ; fourthly, increased heat. Note, let 

 us see how these four great lights conduct us to the 

 navicular joint. 



The first of these characteristics, viz. redness, 

 avails us nothing, the surrounding parts being co- 

 vered with hair. The second, swelliug, is seldom 

 manifest in these cases, the inflamed parts being in- 

 closed by the hoof. Third, pain, although indi- 

 cated by lameness to exist in some part of the limb, 

 is not sulficient to guide us to the exact site of the 

 disease. Fourth and last, heat: this is too often 

 fallacious ; horses, like ourselves, are naturally sub- 

 ject both to hot and to cold feet when in health ; 

 and, further, 1 liavc fre(]uenlly met with chronic 



