788 
DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 
the pedal-joint, and the diagnosis may for a time appear doubtful. 
Lameness, appearing simultaneously with swelling, points to primary 
subcoronary cellulitis; in secondary cellulitis, due to purulent inflam¬ 
mation of the joint, the swelling is preceded by severe lameness. And 
further, while in primary cellulitis pain generally diminishes after dis¬ 
charge occurs, in purulent disease of the pedal-joint it persists. 
Sometimes synovia is discharged, or the pedal-joint may be felt by 
Fig. 296.—Lateral view of fore foot, with nerves and injected vessels, showing some of the 
structures involved in inflammation of the subcoronary connective tissue and its complica¬ 
tions. ft, Digital artery; b, perpendicular artery ; e, preplantar artery; f, twigs from 
the plantar artery which escape through the foramina, just above the lower margin of the 
os pedis, and by their anastomosis form f", the circumflex artery of the toe; A, digital 
vein; B, coronary venous plexus; C, laminal plexus; G. circumflex vein; 1, digital 
nerve; 2, anterior terminal branches of digital nerve; 3, posterior terminal branches of 
digital nerve ; 4, cutaneous branches. 
introducing the finger; in such case no doubt can exist as to the nature 
of the condition. 
The course of subcoronary cellulitis is usually unfavourable. Some¬ 
times laminitis results from the animal continually standing on the other 
foot, and the patient dies from decubitus ; sometimes the disease seizes 
on one or other of the lateral cartilages and produces quittor, but not 
infrequently septic inflammation occurs in the coronary band, destroys 
extensive tracts of tissue, and leads to fatal pyaemia or septicaemia. The 
