184 
NAVICUL ARTHRITIS. 
curably and permanently lame, and in that state of lameness or 
unremitting pain or uneasiness of foot, had from constant favour- 
ing and resting of the lame foot engendered contraction. 
It is pretty evident, from what has been stated (at pp. 122-3) 
that Moorcroft, in such cases, saw cause of lameness beyond the con- 
traction of the hoof. When Sir Edward Codrington wrote to him, 
saying, he thought his horse was lame from “ contraction,” Moor- 
croft’s reply was, I fear your’s is “ a complicated case adding, 
“ I have put you to the expense of a long letter, in order that you 
may form some opinion whether your horse is lame from pure 
contraction, or from contraction connected with deep-seated injury 
of the foot” Language such as this is pretty indicative that 
Moorcroft was neither in ignorance of the true cause of lameness 
in this case of — at all events, suspected or assumed — navicular- 
thritis, nor of the formidable and but too frequently — when be- 
come chronic — hopeless nature of such a disease ; hence his con- 
cluding regret, “ if I had understood completely facts heretofore 
stated many years ago, I should have saved myself much dis- 
appointment and my employers much expense!” Lateral con- 
traction of the hoof, then, may be taken so far in connexion with 
navicularthritis that it will now and then be found to supervene 
upon that disease, though never, as a cause, to forerun it : a result 
we might feel disposed to look for much oftener than it occurs, 
from the circumstance I before mentioned, of the horse favouring 
and reposing on every occasion he can his contracted and lame 
foot. In being consulted, therefore, on contraction, we shall, with 
Moorcroft, be led to inquire, from history, present symptoms, and 
other circumstances, whether the case before us be one of pure 
contraction, or one of contraction the sequel of navicularthritis. 
The time is now come for us to examine into a fact too noto- 
rious to be questioned among veterinarians of a certain standing 
in the profession, and which the account I have given of the lame 
patients I found at the Veterinary College, during my pupillage 
in 1809, tends to confirm, viz. that in former days contraction ap- 
peared as the ordinary or prevalent cause of foot- lameness; where- 
as, now-a-days, all or nearly all foot-lameness is set down to 
the account of navicularthritis. It is probable that in both these 
opinions error has played its part, there being a fashion and a fond- 
ness for novelty in medicine as in other matters : still, the broad 
fact is undeniable, that contraction is, as it were, gone out of our 
sick register to make room for navicularthritis, and it becomes my 
duty to afford some explanation of the apparently strange metastasis. 
It will hardly be necessary to remind such of my readers as are 
old enough to have heard our late distinguished Professor’s ex- 
cellent lectures on the foot of the horse, that that was a part he 
