AN ESSAY ON CHRONIC PODOTROCHOLITIS. 
35 
pavement, or bard stony roads; false steps, in which the toe sup- 
ports itself while the heels require to be considerably lowered 
before they can touch the ground. 
And does not Chronic Podotrocholitis occasionally 
arise FROM Internal Causes] — Here is a question which 
cannot be answered with any degree of certainty. No demonstra- 
tive proofs, either negative or affirmative, can be furnished: ana- 
logy alone can guide us, and, reasoning from that, we should be in- 
clined to reply in the affirmative. In point of fact, the extremities 
have sympathetic relations with other parts of the body. How 
often do we not see affections break out in the limbs dependent 
wholly on internal causes, or referrible to some other suffering 
organs] To corroborate this observation by example, I will cite 
the case of a Russian mare, twelve years old, in which diarrhoea 
alternated with lameness so regularly, that, as soon as the flux of 
the body ceased, it was succeeded by lameness of one or the other of 
the fore-feet, the foot becoming hot and sensitive. One of these 
two affections was constantly present. No sooner had the antiphlo- 
gistic remedies caused a cessation of lameness than diarrhoea came 
on ; and the moment this yielded to treatment, the animal again 
went lame. To this class of lesions belongs the interesting case 
given by Mercier* * * § , of carditis, accompanied by lameness of the 
right fore-leg, with great pain in the scapulo-humeral articulation : 
it was dissipated after about two days, and then flew to the coxo- 
femoral joint. I would also recall to mind founder, arising from 
too rich and plentiful feeding : this w r ould seem to indicate the ex- 
istence of some very close relationship between the limbs and the 
digestive apparatus. Then, again, lamenesses of foals, where the 
disease is situated in the same tissues as chronic podotrocholitis. 
These two affections present more than one analogous point. The 
ringbone which Ammont witnessed, attacking six-months old 
foals that had just been cured of glanders. Gurltf also inclines 
to this opinion; for he reckons, among the causes of osteitis, 
diseases which affect the animal economy generally, and principally 
rheumatism. Traeger § goes even farther, for he refers ringbone, 
spavin, splent, & c., to an arthritico-rheumatismal temperament. 
This idea is, perhaps, too much generalized, but when restricted 
within proper bounds it seems exceedingly probable. Prosecuted 
researches are requisite to solve these interesting questions; to 
which I may add the problem of the causes of intermittent typhus, 
* Recueil de M^decine Veterinaire pratique, 1841, p. 240. 
t Handbuch der gesammter Gestiitskunde und Pferdezueht Koenigsberg, 
1 833. 
X Lehrbuch dcr Pathologischen Anatomie. Th. I, p. ]03. 
§ Magazin fur die gesaminte Thierheilkunde, Jahr V, p. 206. 
