61 
LAMENESS IN THE FEET OF HORSES. 
>efore our eyes, of the soundness of many fast-working horses 
vhose feet are contracted. Now I conceive, that for any one of 
hose contracted feet to be free from lameness, and stand quick 
M>rk, the progress of the contraction must have been as gradual 
s the process of nature in the renovation or formation ot parts, 
»y constant, though imperceptible, absorption and deposit. The 
iving or sensitive parts of the foot have, by decrease, adapted 
hemselves to the diminished capacity of the insensible horny 
>ox ; and that this frequently occurs without pain to the animal, 
s evident by their performances, and their situation is by no 
neans analogous to the human foot when punished in a tight 
hoe. I therefore draw this inference,—that general contraction ol 
he horse’s foot may take place to a great extent with impunity; 
>ut I find that it is a partial contraction or pressure which is the 
oot of the evil. * ■ 
With regard to the harmlessness of general contraction, ab- 
itractedly considered, I think I am sufficiently borne out by the 
housands and tens of thousands of contracted hind feet, which 
lave always carried their share of the burthen to the end ot many 
i horse that had never received or required the \ eterinarian’s 
skill. 
No man has ever been heard to bewrnil the loss of his horse 
rom being groggy behind ; but I will take upon myself to say, 
hat the public have sustained a greater loss of valuable horse- 
lesh from the havoc of this disease alone in the fore feet, than 
from all the catalogue of diseases to which the limbs of horses 
ire liable, not excepting even the w r ear and tear of sinews. 
It affords me no slight gratification, that my experience in the 
feet of horses, as far as it has yet gone, enables me to bear testi¬ 
mony to the truth of very many important points on the foot of 
the horse, as promulgated by that eminent head and father of 
our science, Professor Coleman: I am convinced that that en¬ 
lightened gentleman is, in the main, right as to his doctrines on 
the foot, although I differ from him as to their bearings in prac¬ 
tice ; and, with respect to the physiology of some important parts 
of the foot, l must also somewhat differ from the same high 
authority. 
Mr. Coleman says, that the navicular bone is very limited in 
its action ; necessarily so, first, by the shortness of its ligaments, 
which confine it to the coffin and small pastern bones ; and, 
secondly, by being so closely bound by the flexor tendon, just 
previous to its insertion into the inferior concave part ol the collin 
bone. 
I think that the navicular joint, being a double joint, adds 
much to the complicated mechanism of the foot; and as the end 
