258 DISEASES OF THE HORSE’S FOOT 
up’ feeding materials now on the market. Many are com- 
posed of substances that may be regarded as absolutely 
opposed to the correct feeding of a horse, and their use can 
only be followed by this and other evil results. 
Another most fruitful cause of laminitis is a severe and 
continued inflammatory condition of the system elsewhere. 
It is the laminitis known to veterinary surgeons as * metas- 
tatic,’ and perhaps the two most notable examples of it are 
the laminitis following a prolonged attack of pneumonia, 
and the ‘ Parturient Laminitis’ occurring as a concomitant 
of septic metritis. 
Parturient laminitis it is that offers us the most striking 
illustration of the truth that a poisoned state of the blood- 
stream is a sure factor in the causation of an attack. From 
the direct evidence of our senses (namely, manual exploration 
of the infected womb, and the stench of the exuding discharge) 
we know that we have in the interior of the womb matter 
in a state of putrescence. From the experience of previous 
post-mortems we know, further, that the putrescent matter 
thus originating often gains the blood-stream, and forms 
foci of septic lesions elsewhere—liver or lung. When, 
therefore, during an attack of septic metritis a condition of 
laminitis supervenes, we are justified in attributing it to 
the escape of septic matter from the already infected uterus. 
In the same category cf laminitis from metastasis may 
also be placed the laminitis occurring as a result of an over- 
dose of aloes. The enteritis thus set up is often followed 
by laminitis, and that of a serious type. 
Prolonged and excessive work upon a hard road is also 
apt to induce an attack. When this occurs it in many 
cases resolves itself into a case of cruelty. (See reported 
case, No. 1, p. 279.) 
Laminitis from this cause was frequent among coach and 
carriage horses in the pre-railroad period, and resulted from 
attempting to obtain from the animal a faster pace and a 
greater number of miles than he was-physically capable of 
giving. 
In our day, however, it is more often a result of gross 
