PATHOLOGY OF LAMIN1TIS. 
517 
partially slung of course) must be determined by the nature 
of the case, and the discretion of the practitioner. So great 
are the obvious advantages, but so defective is the present 
mode of slinging horses, that I had made up my mind to 
offer, through our professors, a prize of ten pounds for the 
best essay on slinging, in order to obtain the most useful 
practical contrivances partaking of any and all the advantages 
that recent improvements could suggest, but on further 
reflection I found it a field where the scope was too limited 
for the full exercise of superior talent. 
If one argument, or fact, be yet required to render the 
advantages of slinging more conclusive, I would advance this, 
which 1 opine cannot fail in practically demonstrating it to 
be an unquestionable, and incontrovertible truth, viz., in a 
case of severe lameness in one foot from an injury. In this 
foot we have intense inflammation, in which the laminae are 
more or less involved, and perhaps chiefly implicated, but we 
have none of the symptoms of laminitis or sinking of the 
sole hereafter (only in grossly neglected cases, when com- 
pelled to work whilst in intense pain), and why is this? It 
is simply because the extreme tenderness prevented the 
horse from laying any weight upon this foot ; he nursed the 
organ, or, it may be said, instinct slung it , during the time the 
laminae were inflamed. But what becomes of the other foot ? 
Weight is telling its damaging tale there, although the 
laminae are strong and healthy, and no constitutional tendency 
causing predisposition exists, yet they yield. There we have 
neither contiguity, continuity, nor sameness of tissue, as the 
assignable cause, but the direct effect of weight. If, then, 
weight will thus forcibly produce it, is it not equally certain 
that weight is the great and chiefly aggravating cause of the 
continuance of active laminitis? 
There is, however, an objection to the employment of 
slings, viz., the sores sometimes produced by them. This 
may be in a great measure obviated by carefully adjusting 
them. The best plan I know of, is to let your slings extend 
forward under the breast to the front, and from this end I 
attach another pair of ropes. Along the under surface of my 
slings, or within the folds of the canvas, I have two thin 
slabs of wood — say three inches broad and a quarter of an 
inch thick, — these extend from end to end of the slings to 
keep them spread open, and upon my slings I have a strong 
india-rubber air-cushion, about three feet long and sixteen 
inches wide, narrowed between the arms, so as to adapt it to 
those parts, and this is kept inflated with air. I have also 
a cross beam behind, and likewise one on each side, well 
