PATHOLOGY OF LAMINITIS. 
515 
examine and repair a bridge or house-wall, the foundation of 
which was settling or sinking, commenced tinkering and 
pottering about the foundation and foundation-stones them- 
selves, without providing for contingences, and wholly 
heedless about the superincumbent weight above? Would 
not the man be looked upon as a most indiscreet and inju- 
dicious person? Would any one be surprised if the bridge 
or house came down about his ears, and he was found 
buried in the ruins ? Yet we find many considerate and 
thoughtful practitioners, whilst they are most careful about 
the exact weight of the poultice not exceeding a few ounces, to 
be at the same time wholly regardless about the tearing and 
breaking stress from the mighty weight of the superstructure, 
this pressing with a force in some cases equal to 20lb. upon 
every square inch of laminas, or half a ton, upon these highly 
organized and now extremely vascular and sensitive tissues 
of the fore feet. 
In treating cases of acute laminitis, the great importance, 
nay, the absolute necessity, of removing, as speedily as possible, 
the superincumbent weight, as a first or primary act in the 
way of treatment, must be obvious to every reflecting mind. 
Mr. Gabriel says his great anxiety is to get in his frog setons; 
now my great anxiety is to remove, as speedily as possible, 
the chief cause of the animal’s intense suffering ; and this done , 
you may then bleed, insert frog- seton, foment, poultice, or do 
whatever else you deem requisite. 
SLINGING. 
So great is the importance I attach to slinging, in this 
disease, that I esteem it the “ sheet anchor.” The advantages 
to be gained from it are greater than from all the other 
modes of treatment put together, since these, without 
slinging, are in by far the majority of cases utterly unavailing. 
I am now speaking of acute laminitis in heavy draught horses, 
and so thoroughly satisfied am I of it, from opportunities 
I have had of observing, that I now look upon all other 
remedies as secondary to this. I consider slings as essential 
in acute laminitis, as the tracheotomy-tube in cases w T here 
immediate suffocation is threatened from a temporary 
plugging up of the larynx, occasioned by acute inflammation 
and swelling of the lining membrane. Where would be the 
wisdom of employing the most efficacious means at our 
command, knowing that they could only reduce the inflam- 
matory affection in twenty-four or forty-eight hours, while 
the patient, to the greatest earthly certainty, could not survive 
