ACUTE LAMINITIS, ENTERITIS, AND PNEUMONIA. 629 
an adjoining field of partially ripe corn, and several have taken 
the disease almost immediately. We repeatedly see it accom- 
pany super-purgation ; it is also, as we too well know, an 
occasional and somewhat untractable associate of thoracic 
inflammation. It is, of course, impossible to speak with 
certainty as to its cause in the case just reported, but I am 
inclined to ascribe it to the indigestion caused by the black 
oats and green wheat. Indigestion there must have been, or 
why was this food retained in the digestive organs for the 
unusual period of 10 days. Such retention of such food, and 
the performance of a 150 miles* journey, were surely sufficient 
causes of disease. As to the pneumonia, I may merely remark 
that it often accompanies, if it does not precede, many cases 
of laminitis. There are instances in which the diseases co- 
exist from the commencement of apparent illness, and there 
are other cases where pneumonia seems excited by the pul- 
monary congestion and disturbance induced by the intense 
pain and high irritative fever which attend all cases of acute 
laminitis. Whether, however, the pneumonia be primary or 
secondary, it has evidently much to do in determining a fatal 
result. Although the consequences of acute laminitis are 
sometimes such as to render a horse almost worthless for 
many weeks, and even months, yet it is a disease which is 
perhaps mostly treated with complete success if treated early. 
On this point I have nothing new to offer, as the old fashioned 
“ copious bleeding, ” and its adjuncts, are very generally 
successful. The acute symptoms often subside in three days 
or so, and our patient is quite recovered in another week, 
without any descent of the sole or other morbid change in the 
feet. Seeing, as we do, the rapidity of separation between 
the hoof and sensitive parts within, we can appreciate the 
importance of early and energetic measures, in preventing 
what often produces most destructive consequences. 
