TURNER ON THE FOOT OF THE HORSE. 
455 
A Treatise on the Foot of the Horse, and a New System of 
Shoeing by one-sided Nailing; and on the Nature, Origin, and 
Symptoms of the Navicular Joint Tameness , with Preventive 
and Curative Treatment. By Jam es T u rn er, Member of the 
Royal Veterinary College, and Veterinary Surgeon in the Army. 
Longman & Co. 
Mr. James Turner has, in this little work, collected together 
his papers on the important subjects expressed in the title, and 
which were scattered through the volumes of The Veteri- 
narian. He has done more than this;—they have been sub¬ 
mitted to the decision of his more experienced judgment : some 
parts have been transposed, others curtailed, others omitted ; and 
in various places he has added interesting practical facts. 
Altogether, it is a performance worthy of the subject, and credit¬ 
able to the talent and diligence of the author. 
There can be no dispute, that Mr. James Turner was the 
first person who directed the attention of veterinary practitioners 
to the navicular joint disease as the most frequent seat of groggy 
lameness. This lameness was as untractable thirty years ago as it 
is now ; but neither its nature nor place was understood: it was 
considered to be some undefined injury of the coffin joint—it w r as 
termed coffin joint lameness. There were a few observing veteri¬ 
narians who had nearly penetrated the mystery, and had been 
accustomed occasionally to look to the navicular joint as the source 
of the evil. Among them we may reckon Messrs. Field and 
Morecroft. Mr. Morecroft, in a very excellent paper which he 
first published in the Calcutta Journal, in 1819 # , gives us one 
instance out of a great many which the records of science will 
afford, how nearly an inquirer, and a diligent and a gifted one, 
will arrive at the truth, without its perfectly flashing upon his 
mind. He says, “ On dissecting feet affected with these lame¬ 
nesses, the flexor tendon was now and then o'bserved to have been 
broken, partially or entirely ; but more commonly to have been 
bruised and inflamed in its course under the navicular or shuttle 
bone, or at its insertion into the bone of the foot. Sometimes, 
* See Veterinarian, vol. iii, p. Cl ( J . 
