154 ON THE NAVICULAR DISEASE AND SPAVIN. 
the coffin bone.” But, adds Mr. Turner, u it should be observed 
that I am not urging the patient to bear his weight on the dis¬ 
eased joint till after its inflamed vessels have been relieved by 
the blood-letting.” 
This part of Mr. Turner’s treatment is most mysterious to 
me ; for I should as much think of rasping away the toe, to bring 
the weight upon the heels and the navicular bone, as I should of 
rasping away the heels to produce the opposite effect. Making 
the toe sore, to induce the horse to throw his weight on the heels,— 
parts alreay in pain,—would place him in something like the si¬ 
tuation of a man with a cut on his toe and a sore place on the 
heel; and I leave you to judge how much weight, under such cir¬ 
cumstances, would be thrown on any part of the suffering limb. 
Wherever theoiy is at variance with practice we generally find 
that it is delusive and injurious ; and so must be that theory which 
could induce Mr. Turner to commence walking exercise the third 
day, when he is driven to a second bleeding on the fifth or 
sixth. If the synovial membrane of my knee-joint were in¬ 
flamed, and my surgeon were to prescribe copious abstraction of 
blood by leeches or cupping on one day, and desire me to walk 
upon it the next and the third day, and then to submit to another 
leeching and cupping, I certainly should very much question his 
judgment. 
There is no symptom so decisive of the progress towards cure, 
in these cases, as the return to soundness; but it would be a 
difficult matter for any practitioner to judge of the state of a 
horse treated after Mr. Turner’s method; for he could not dis¬ 
criminate between the lameness produced by the treatment, and 
that produced by the disease. 
In all that I have said, I allude to those that I consider to be 
recent cases of navicular disease; but no distinction has been 
made in Mr. Turner’s paper between those beginning to be 
affected and others that have existed long enough to produce all 
kinds of deformity in the hoof. With the latter cases, I wish 
him all the success in their treatment his observation leads 
him to anticipate. But I do not pretend to distinguish between 
those cases that are curable and those that are incurable; for I 
have seen many get well where no doubt could exist that 
chronic disease in the navicular joint had been the cause of 
lameness ; and, on the other hand, I have seen, and have spe¬ 
cimens of feet by me where no visible alteration in the hoof 
could be detected, yet where lameness had become permanent. 
If the patient be a valuable one, and the disease have ex¬ 
isted any length of time, the safest plan to adopt, after getting 
him sound, is to recommend a three months’ rest in a straw- 
yard, or loose place, without shoes, before commencing to work 
