N A V IC U LART1I HIT IS. 
125 
( Copy.) 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISEASE OF THE FOOT OF THE HORSE 
COMMONLY CALLED FOUNDER, OR GROGGY LAMENESS, BUT, 
BY MODERN PRACTITIONERS, CONTRACTION OF THE FOOT. 
I WAS induced to direct my particular attention and study to this 
disease, in the first place, because our best treatment and great- 
est exertions were generally unsuccessful; — secondly, in the course 
of practice I was frequently obliged, in obedience to the opinion 
of the day, to pronounce to the owners of horses thus afflicted, 
that contraction of the foot was the disease, when, in fact, they 
were often good-looking open feet. This complaint was formerly 
described b}' the term Chest Founder, supposing it an affection of 
the muscles of the shoulders and chest, but since the establish- 
ment of the Veterinary College, contraction of the foot, consider- 
ing that from the horny box being diminished in size, its capacity 
is not equal to its contents, consequently the sensitive parts of the 
foot receive unnatural pressure : by this alteration in the shape of 
N the hoof modern practitioners account for the lameness, the actual 
cause of lameness being compared to the pressure of a tight shoe 
upon the human foot. The result of my dissections was, the 
discovery of an important joint within the hoof, so much diseased 
as to be incapable of acting as a joint. 
Taking into consideration the extreme pain attendant upon the 
destruction or merely inflammation in the interior of a joint, it 
strikes me as being a more likely cause of lameness than con- 
traction of the hoof ; therefore, from this and the following prac- 
tical facts, I entertain a different opinion. 
First. — The immense number of horses there are in this country 
with narrow heels, whose feet are contracted, but not lame ; and 
we have numerous instances of contraction to an extreme, feet 
so distorted, from the length of the toe and the narrowness of the 
heels, as to bear no resemblance to the circle which was the ori- 
ginal form, and yet go perfectly sound. 
Secondly. — We are daily seeing groggy or lame horses con- 
firmed cripples, with feet which, from external form, must be de- 
clared good ; so fair in appearance, that no practitioner, upon 
merely taking up the foot, would venture to pronounce it bad or 
contracted, if he did not know at the same time that the horse was 
a cripple. 
Thirdly. — The hind feet of many horses are much contracted, 
but we have very few instances, if any, of lameness behind from 
contraction. I think no practitioner has ever pronounced a horse 
groggy behind. 
