82 MORBID PHENOMENA CONNECTED WITH 



large will see or admit the expediency of attempting 

 Reduction of to Teduce them to their primitive station, I shall 



the loot l)onps 



to their priini- jjq^ prcsume to prophecy ; but, in taking a re- 



InCreaimeMt t'^^^P^^^^^'^ ^ '^^^' ^^ ^^^ subject, I feel much confi- 

 lamenesrhl- dcucc in giviug uttcrauce to a conviction on my 



therto omitted jj^if,(J^ l\^^l ^J^Jg jj^s bcCU OUC of OUr siuS of OmissioH, 



through which the proprietors of valuable horses 

 have incurred a most oppressive tax for ages, by a 

 fruitless expenditure of the national' weal in keep 

 and medicine, devoted to the attempts of curing 

 such cases of contracted feet, without the surgeon 

 ever having had the slightest glimpse into the 

 hiding-place of his real opponent. 



The avowed enemy, viz. the contraction of the 

 horny box, we have all of us most successfully en- 

 countered, for nothing is more easy than to spread 

 a narrow foot ; but how true it is, that we have all 

 been too much accustomed to be summoned to that 

 same contest in the same foot asrain and aaain, in 

 which we had erroneously taken to ourselves the 

 credit of a cure. Why thus abortive? Because 

 there has always existed in such cases a lurking 

 enemy in ambush (as well as the declared one) 

 with which we have never grappled. 



With regard too. primary cause of this false posi- 

 tion of the foot bones, to say nothing of a chief pre- 

 disposing cause, 1 am of opinion that functional 

 disturbance, for a very long period, precedes any 

 organic disease ; that this functional impairment 



