N A VICUL ARTHRITIS. 
369 
Does the horse point the lame foot 1 i. e. does he stand in 
his stable with his lame foot placed in advance of the other 1 In- 
deed, it not very unfrequently happens that the animal at the very 
time he is brought to us for advice, will, while his master or groom 
is relating his ailment, stand all the while in our presence with his 
foot pointed : revealing, as it were, himself the nature of his malady 
at the very time it is being inquired into. Dr. Brauell, as I said 
before, declares pointing to be the earliest indication of navicular- 
thritis ; and for my own part I think this very probable, notwith- 
standing it seems not to have attracted notice as such by our own 
veterinarians. This will hardly be wondered at, however, when 
we come to consider that lame horses are brought to us out of other 
persons’ stables, and that pointing with many horses, especially on 
a first or recent attack, is a symptom by no means so ready of de- 
tection as many may imagine, even after lameness is set in ; and 
therefore it is no uncommon thing for pointing to be denied alto- 
gether, both by the groom and master of the horse. Mr. Turner 
has cautioned us against being deceived by such representations. 
“ My rule,” says he, “ is never to place reliance on this statement; 
and therefore on a quiet examination in the stable, unobserved by 
the animal himself, I generally catch him in the fact : probably not 
extending the lame foot out a yard before him, but projecting only 
about a hand’s breadth beyond the other foot,” See. In making 
such observations, however, and drawing our conclusions from them, 
it must be borne in mind that there are horses quite free from 
lameness who point the foot from habit — who stand so for ease — 
make it, in fact, their natural standing posture. Horses in years, 
and who are stale on their legs, sound though they be in their 
work, very often get into a habit of what is called “ shifting their 
legs” in their stalls, i. e. standing first upon one foot, then upon 
the other, pointing or resting them by turns. It is but natural that 
the animal should point the foot in pain, or, in other words, take 
his weight off it, the same as we find another horse doing whose 
foot has been pricked in shoeing, or has picked up a nail ; and this 
it is that makes pointing a symptom of so much importance in our 
diagnosis. We appear to be assured by it, that, whatever the 
malady may be, the foot is the seat of it ; and that we may make 
this assurance doubly sure in our diagnosis, we must ascertain that 
it is invariably with the same foot the pointing has been observed. 
HEAT OF Foot, though one of the ordinary symptoms of navi- 
cularthritis, will not be present in every stage of the lameness. 
When a horse, for example, falls lame on the road on a sudden, 
the cause of lameness not originating in inflammation — which as 
yet has not had time to set in — it cannot be expected that heat 
should be present. Neither will it be found in certain chronic 
