VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 179 
hoof, this deformity of crust acting as a trap. Its removal there¬ 
fore also renders the compressing power of the opposite quarter 
nugatory. 
Mr. Goodwin has severely censured that part of the treatment 
in which I allow the patient to be walked in hand very slowly, 
for exercise, on a soft surface, as a well littered ride, so early as 
within three or four days after the blood-letting operation. This 
will not be found inconsistent with my method of cure, when it is 
considered that I attach great importance to the detrusion of the 
coffin and navicular bones, as well as to the subduing; of the in- 
flammation of the joint: and it being obvious that this end could 
only be accomplished by the superincumbent weight of the 
animal himself, it strikes me as a critical period for adding slow 
motion to the weight, just as the joint has been relieved from 
pain and inflammation, and whilst the inside quarter of the hoof 
remains as thin and flexible as wet paper. 
Mr. W. Percivall begged Mr. Turner to understand, that he 
gave him full credit for the discovery of the nature and seat of 
the navicular disease. He only lately became acquainted with it; 
but having become acquainted with it, he must differ from Mr. 
Turner in some important points. Mr. T. had observed, that the 
ordinary cause of groggy lameness was the navicular disease. 
When there was no apparent cause of lameness, it was attributed 
to an affection of the navicular joint. This was carrying the 
thing much too far; and the ordinary cause of navicular disease 
was contraction, and that contraction which at the college we used 
to call, from below upward. Am I right? 
Mr. Turner .—Mr. Coleman certainly talked of the contraction 
from below upward; but he confined his remarks to the sole : he 
never adverted to that which is the bane of the foot: but he 
overlooked the fixed elevated state of the bars and frog, and the 
increased depth of the commissures. 
Mr. W. Percivall. —Mr. Turner has stated that this is the 
general cause of the navicular disease. 
Mr. Turner .—Occasionally it will commence in a foot of the 
reverse shape ; but it is the general cause. 
Mr. Percivall .—So far from its being the general cause, I con¬ 
sider it as merely incidental, and much oftener the effect of the 
disease than the cause. It arises more from the state of inactivity 
into which the different parts of the foot get from the horse re¬ 
maining long without exercise. The parts below the navicular 
joint become motionless, inelastic, fixed or absorbed, and the 
membrane covering the navicular bone becomes bruised by them. 
Mr. (ioodwin still thought that contraction was subsequent not 
antecedent to the navicular disease. The two cases to which he 
