182 
NAVICUL ARTHRITIS. 
Thus is the account concluded of the history of navicularthritis 
so far as regards our own country. With this, however, the 
inquiring veterinarian will hardly feel satisfied: he will naturally 
desire to be informed what has or had been brought to light 
respecting the disease in other countries. A more satisfactory 
answer to such a question cannot, perhaps, be produced than by 
quoting what has been said in relation thereto by — certainly the 
best author, out of our own country, on the subject, viz.< — Dr. 
Brauell ; in the translation of whose work — “ An Essay on Podo- 
trocholitis” — we find the following passage : — “ The author (Dr. 
Brauell) commences his “ essay” by passing in review the writings 
of the ancients, wherein he does not meet with a single passage 
leading him to infer they possessed any knowledge of the (navicu- 
lar) disease. The earliest allusions to it are to be found in the 
works of Lafosse, Jun. He was ignorant neither of the seat nor 
of some of the peculiarities of podotrocholitis ; but, confounding it 
with other diseases of the feet, he failed to give any description of 
it as a special disease.” 
It must seem strange to those who have entered the veterinary 
profession within the last twenty years that navicularthritis, a dis- 
ease now-a-days in everybody’s mouth, was thirty years ago un- 
known. In 1809, when I entered the Royal Veterinary College as 
a pupil, what were the cases of lameness I found in the college 
stables 1 I remember well that a very large proportion of them 
were called cases of “ contraction :” that I found to be the prevalent 
disease, and that it was to which the Professor’s chief attentions 
were evidently attracted. I found these horses wearing shoes of a 
particular kind upon their lame feet. Some, tips ; some, bar-shoes ; 
some shoes with clips at the heels, & c., and all standing for 
several hours in the course of the day with their fore feet in 
tubs of water : every now and then being trotted out in hand by 
direction of the Professors, with the view of ascertaining what 
progress towards amendment was being made by the treatment 
adopted. And it was a common circumstance for such cases to 
continue for months under treatment. I also remember how much 
of Professor Coleman’s attention the complaint called “contraction” 
occupied — what a favourite the subject was with him, and how 
ingeniously and learnedly he descanted upon it in his lectures : — 
He would say — “ Expansion of the hoof is effected by the pressure 
upwards of the frog and the pressure downwards of the navicular 
bane. By properly thinning the sole, rasping the quarters, lower- 
ing the heels, giving the frog pressure, and keeping the horse 
in a pond all day long, or else tied up with his (lame) feet in a 
tub of water, we have no difficulty in removing contracted hoofs. 
Although difficulty there be none, however, in restoring the original 
