ON THE NAVICULAR DISEASE AND SPAVIN. 151 
during life, in its incipient state, all the tact, talent, and dis¬ 
crimination of the experienced practitioner are in requisition; 
for there are many apparently fine open-looking feet affected with 
this complaint, which, in reality, are treacherous feet, and conceal 
from the eye of a common observer a lurking evil, which is gene¬ 
rally antecedent to the navicular disease/’ 
For my part, let alone the common observer, I cannot imagine 
how the experienced practitioner can prognosticate, with any 
degree of precision, what is to be the future state of this trea¬ 
cherous foot, apparently, as described, a fine open-looking one; 
unless disease have taken place, and then I imagine lameness would 
lead him or any one else to suspect the treachery that is existing 
unseen within. Veterinary practitioners should be exceedingly 
guarded in every opinion they offer about the future condition of 
any part of the horse; and there is none in which they should 
be more cautious, than when giving opinions about feet; for it 
must be admitted, that we daily meet with many feet, whose 
appearance would lead us to pronounce them unsound, where 
experience proves the opposite state. 
When I am called to examine a lame horse, I often find all 
my “ tact, talent, and discrimination,” of no avail to discover 
the cause of lameness; and I am certain there are those, who, 
if they have the candour to confess it, are often placed in the 
same situation. After having minutely examined the lame limb, 
and had the shoe taken off, and the foot thoroughly searched, 
and having no reason to suspect the mischief to be any w r here 
else, I invariably, knowing the frequency of the occurrence, 
attribute it to the navicular joint. It will, of course, be un¬ 
derstood that I am now alluding to lameness of the fore leg. 
I then turn my patient into a loose box; bleed and physic; 
place the foot or the feet, if lame in both, in poultice boots, 
which I always keep for that purpose, with crushed linseed 
moistened; and I enjoin perfect rest for at least ten days. In 
nineteen cases out of twenty, if treated in this way, and as 
as soon lameness occurs, the horse becomes sound again at 
the expiration of that time, when I usually have a shoe tacked 
on to try them in the ride. 
If I find that the horse is still lame, I resort to bleeding at the 
toe, and keep the foot constantly pared, and the horn suppled by 
the emollient poultice ; and when I have given these remedies a full 
trial without success, I usually blister the coronet, and sometimes 
with a decidedly good effect. 
When all these efforts to produce soundness are unavailing, 
and the foot becomes altered in shape, the sole increasing its 
concavity, the crust becoming upright, and the diameter of the 
