146 LAMINITIS — AGUTE FOUNDER — FEVER IN THE FEET. 
very instant he does so you again recognize laminitis ; instead of 
getting partially on his fore legs and then on his hind ones, he 
makes one great effort to get as it were on the hind ones at once. 
See where the fore feet are placed ! not under, but as far as possi- 
ble before him, as if they never were intended to be used to sup- 
port an ounce of his weight, but merely as points to prevent his 
falling forward on his nose ; the hind legs at the same time, 
instead of being placed under his quarters, are made central sup- 
ports of and brought directly under the body. Now, I have no 
hesitation in asserting, that no man possessing even the most ordi- 
nary powers of perception, who has once seen either of these ex- 
quisitely characteristic symptoms, can by any possibility ever after 
mistake them. 
Having thus mentally decided on your case, you investigate the 
other more general symptoms, — the rapid pulse and accelerated 
respiration before-mentioned, accompanied by warm and frequently 
hot extremities, — the metacarpal arteries throbbing away to an ex- 
tent frequently observable to the eye, — the disinclination to rise 
when down, although lying down appears scarcely to mitigate his 
sufferings, — the confined state of the bowels, with occasional par- 
tial perspirations, will fully confirm the first impression. These 
symptoms, so well marked, become simultaneously developed, and 
that not unfrequently in the course of two or three hours, so rapid 
is the progress of the disease. There is, however, an occasional 
anomaly in the symptoms of this disease, to which I have before 
alluded, but which I have never been able satisfactorily to account 
for : it is this — that, although in the great majority of cases the 
patient will be almost constantly lying down, yet every now and 
then it happens that he will stand throughout the entire course of 
the disease as obstinately as in the most acute chest affection ; and 
it is this fact that has occasioned the disease to be mistaken for 
such opposite ones as pneumonia and enteritis. But is there not 
accompanying pneumonia in this easel Why, yes; just as pro- 
bably so as there might be in enteritis or nephritis. 
And now, then, as to the treatment So diversified are the 
modes now in vogue, that I think it must be very hard if I cannot 
choose my own. Some bleed from the neck, others from the coronet, 
and others again from the toe; some take the shoes off, others leave 
them on ; some thin the soles, others rasp the quarters ; some ap- 
ply cold poultices, others hot stoppings ; some blister the legs, 
others the coronets; some give physic, others are afraid of it; 
some order fever-balls, and others comfortable drenches; to say 
nothing of tight garters, riding the poor beast till he sweats, stand- 
ing two or three hours in a running stream — then the boiling-hot 
stopping, with hard-roasted eggs of my allies, Markham and De 
