48 ON THE NAVICULAR DISEASE. 



Importance of ness, I scrupulously examine the external foot for 

 conipaVhi'j the evei'y probable cause of lameness ; and, having re- 

 the'^'sound ^one moved both shoes, and pared the soles, I minutely 

 rior. compare the ground surface of the lame foot with 



the other, to ascertain whether occult contraction 

 has taken place or not: this is not, however^ to be 

 expected in every case, at it is well known that 

 many navicular lamenesses have occurred moment- 

 arily, as in hunting or other violent exercises. I 

 have omitted to mention; in the requisite order, 

 another not unfrequent cause of navicular disease, 

 viz. the general inflammation consequent upon the 

 accident of casting a shoe, and the animal travel- 

 ling a considerable distance before the rider may 

 have been apprised of it. It is not very uncommon 

 for such an injury to leave a chronic lameness after 

 the complete reproduction of horn, which may have 

 been a process of many weeks' growth. 



We are called upon to treat the navicular disease 

 under various degrees or shades of the same disorder. 

 The case may be either acute or chronic. The 

 lameness may be as sudden and considerable as that 

 which sometimes proceeds from a fractured pastern 

 or cannon bone ; or it may be so slight as to ret{uire 

 a close inspection on pavement to discern it. The 

 disease may have been of very long or short dura- 

 tion, and yet exhibit lameness only in a slight de- 

 gree. 



A horse that had never shewn an hour's lameness 



