VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 175 
weight on one foot more than the other, and therefore there was 
not the alteration of form which is seen in the diseased foot. 
Mr. W. Percivall observed, that Mr. Turner had before con¬ 
tended that contraction was the forerunner, instead of the conse¬ 
quence of disease. 
Mr. Goodwin .—Here is the foot of a John Bull mare, who 
was unnerved for this disease. The tendon gave way, and she 
was destroyed. There is not the slightest contraction. It is a 
flat foot. 
Mr. Henderson .—Are not horses with flat feet subject to navi¬ 
cular disease ? 
Mr. Turner .—Certainly not, so much as others. 
Mr. Goodwin .—Mr. Turner and I disagree principally about 
the commencement of the disease. He imagines, that, except in 
the case of bruise, contraction is the precursor symptom. I af¬ 
firm that the horse is subject to this disease, whatever be the 
form of his foot. I give Mr. Turner the credit of having first 
shewn the origin of the navicular disease. A horse stands se¬ 
veral days in the stable. His frogs become hard, and when he 
begins to work, the joint is bruised and inflammation ensues : 
but there is no necessity for contraction or thick sole. If a man 
brings a lame horse to me, I examine him carefully: I use all my 
“tact, talent and discrimination.” I take him to the forge, and 
have the foot pared out, and search the nail holes and compare 
the feet; then turn him into a box, put on the poultice boot, bleed 
him, and a few days afterwards examine him again to see whe¬ 
ther he has become sound. Mr. Turner would take several quarts 
of blood from the toe, and follow it up by the whole of the severe 
treatment he has described. 
Mr. Goodwin said that he had now two horses with navicular 
lameness; one a beautiful coach horse, which, on coming home 
from the last Ascot races, fell very lame. No cause of lameness 
could be discovered. He was bled, physicked, poulticed, ban¬ 
daged, and at the expiration of a week was still lame. He was 
then bled at the toe, poulticed, physicked, and put on low r diet: 
at the end of a month he was as lame as ever. The foot was 
once more pared, and the former measures repeated, and at the 
expiration of tw r o months the lameness w 7 as much diminished. 
The horse was then turned out, and became perfectly sound; 
but in walking him home he again fell as lame as ever. An 
alteration of the foot had then commenced, and the contracted 
heel and elevated bar, and all Mr. Turner’s precursor symptoms 
had appeared; but “no tact, or talent, or discrimination,” could 
have predicted the course of the disease. He has a thorough-bred 
horse under his care, with suspicious-looking feet. A month ago 
