THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXIII, 
No. 275. 
NOVEMBER 1850. 
Third Series, 
No. 35. 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S. and V.S. 
Acute Laminitis. 
[Continued from page 481.] 
THE Progress of Acute Laminitis is marked by that pain 
and distress to the animal which cannot fail to excite compassion 
for him from all around, while even his medical attendant feels 
himself unable to refuse sympathy for his suffering patient. Day 
and night, night and day, is but one continued scene of loud and 
sad complaint : the patient being found either lying and groaning 
and kicking about his limbs in torment, or else standing and 
breathing hard and quick, and oppresively, looking most im- 
ploringly, and pawing or shifting his feet without intermission. 
This distressing scene holds as long as the third or fourth, or, may 
be, fifth day ; and then, in the event of our treatment proving at 
all successful, some abatement of the pain and fever may be looked 
for, and we may venture to hope our patient so far has weathered 
the storm favourably. But should no such propitious change be 
apparent, no glimmering of amendment be perceptible, we may 
augur badly of the result. Flesh and blood cannot for any great 
while longer maintain their vital force against so ravaging and 
unrelenting a foe. 
The Terminations of Laminitis, as they are called, may be 
saidjto be four: — Resolution , effusion, suppuration, and mortifica- 
tion. And these may be accounted usually to occur in the order 
in which they are here set down ; though they rarely can be said 
to take place independently or singly. 
Resolution is commonly meant to imply the disappearance of a 
disease without leaving behind it any ill consequences. If a horse, 
therefore, having had laminitis, recovers without experiencing any 
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