PHYSIOLOGICAL INQUIRY INTO LAMINITIS. 379 
by desperate and extraordinarj T exertion ; but these are un- 
natural and extreme cases, — they emanate from unnatural 
causes, and therefore cannot be classed with true cases of 
laminitis, any more than the horse having got his shoe fast 
between the sets is thrown down, and gets his hoof partially 
wrenched off, or has had his foot run over, or has been stand- 
ing unnaturally long on one foot through lameness in the 
other. Here, I grant you, we have intense laminal inflam- 
mation, and generally most aggravated cases they are, but 
the constitutional influence bearing upon them is very dissi- 
milar indeed. And I would here remark that, in nearly all 
such intensely acute cases, where disorganization and posi- 
tive laceration of the laminal tissues have taken place from 
these unnatural causes, all efforts to restore the patient to 
ultimate usefulness will prove only a disastrous failure. They 
are cases that are irremediable. 
I believe the remote or predisposing cause, may exist 
without, in the slightest degree, causing any tangible effects 
prejudicial to health or condition ; and that we have all the 
elements of laminitis existing in the system in a passive state 
for an indefinite period previous to lameness showing itself. 
But here I must admit, that during my matriculation, which 
has since been followed up by attentive studies and a some- 
what extensive practice, my professional knowledge is not 
yet sufficiently advanced to throw that light upon this part 
of my subject which I should so much like to have done ; 
but of this I feel persuaded, that the time is not far distant 
when the advancement of science will enable us to unravel 
this, as yet, abstruse physiological subject, more especially 
since this our leading Journal is now placed under such favor- 
able auspices. 
It appears to me there must be, secretly and silently going 
on, a gradual diminution in the activity of the absorbents 
generally, — an incomplete or defective performance of func- 
tion in the capillaries, and the sentient fibres universally, 
causing a smothered or undeveloped irritability of the whole 
system, and which is only waiting, agreeably to nature’s di- 
rections : and it is not until this igneous element has accumu- 
lated itself in sufficient quantities in the system, so as to 
acquire force, and to concentrate itself into a focus, that we 
are enabled to take cognizance of it ; and even then it is not 
by any means clearly recognizable, until it is too evident that 
that focus is the laminae, by its causing lameness. 
It has sometimes struck me forcibly, when pursuing these 
most interesting inquiries, whether electricity has not much 
to do with the development of active disease ; as clouds in two 
