ON THE NAVICULAR DISEASE. 53 



may yet be relieved beyond the most sanguine ex- 

 pectations of tlieir owners, by removing the rigidity 

 of parts (as before detailed) exterior to the joint, 

 and constantly furnishing emollients, in order to pre- 

 serve elasticity. 



On the other hand, there are many in the more 

 advanced stasres of navicular disease afflicted with 

 a deorree of lameness distressinc: to behold, which 

 are greatly relieved by a directly opposite mode of 

 treatment ; such as giving way to the disease by 

 allowing the heels to grow high, propping them up 

 with thick heel shoes or calkins, and facilitating 

 the efforts of the extensor muscles to catch the 

 superincumbent weight, which thereby falls ex- 

 clusively on the coffin bone, leaving the carious na- 

 vicular bone exempt from its share of the burthen. 

 This plan of treatment mitigates the animal's chronic cases 



III some Ill- 



sufferings, but precludes the possibility of cure, stances utterly 

 Yet in such a lost case this is the most humane and 

 rational mode of proceeding. 



Mr. Professor Dick, of Edinburgh, has lately re- 

 marked, that the ulcerated surface of the navicular 

 bone, in protracted or severe cases, is frequently so 

 extensive that, after the nerves have been divided, 

 the friction between the tendon and the navicular 

 bone completely divides the tendon, and the pastern 

 falls to the ground. I advert to this for the purpose 

 of sliewing, that the friction here alluded to is not 

 always necessary to constitute the failure of the ope- 



