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24 
THE SYMPTOMS AND CURE OF NAVICULAR 
DISEASE IN THE FEET OF HORSES. 
By Mr. James Turner, Veterinary Surgeon, Regent Street, 
London. 
[Read at the Veterinary Medical Society, December 4, 1829.] 
Gentlemen, —In the month of December last I had the 
honour of reading to this Society a paper explanatory of my 
views regarding the nature of the navicular disease, or chronic 
lameness in the fore feet of horses, together with the causes of 
that destructive malady. 
The method of treatment and cure is the object of the present 
paper for this evening’s discussion. 
This very prevalent complaint, commonly called groggy lame¬ 
ness, has been shown to exist generally in the navicular joint; 
and I think I may safely assert, that the term navicular lameness 
has now become as current among veterinary practitioners as 
coffin lameness used to be among the ancients. 
Although dissection generally affords satisfactory evidence of 
the seat of disease, yet it does not as uniformly serve us in trac¬ 
ing its causes, the investigation of which is generally involved 
in more obscurity, and consequently is too often speculative. But 
with respect to the probable causes of the disease in question, I 
think there is as much light elicited by the dissection of the 
morbid specimen as we could desire. Commencing with the 
ground surface of the horny frog, and unfolding, layer by layer, 
all parts, until we arrive at the carious surface of the navicular 
bone, there will be presented, at one view, that which not only 
fully explains all the phenomena of the disease, but suggests to 
us the method of cure, and even points to a rational mode of 
shoeing. 
I beg to observe, that in my former paper I took upon myself 
a sort of classification of contraction, or rather its division into 
two kinds ; the one under the designation of simple or general 
contraction, such as the narrow-heeled foot with lengthened toe, 
which is so very prevalent, and obvious to the common observer; 
and which is frequently seen unaccompanied with lameness, and 
even sometimes remains harmless through a long life of hard work. 
The other I have called the occult or partial contraction, which 
is one of the most insidious diseases to which the horse is subject; 
and so specious is the exterior of such a foot, that none but a 
most experienced eye would discover the existence of any disease, 
unless attracted to it by an accompanying lameness. Circularity, 
