VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
53 
very slow in its progress. Cartilages are attached to the coffin-bone, 
the bony substance being deposited for the cartilages is extending to 
the coffin-bone. I have no doubt the navicular bone was becoming 
ulcerated. The disease, I think, must necessarily have existed for up¬ 
wards of six months. The horse had an unnaturally flat sole and thin 
hoof, and was unfit for its work. I produce a specimen of cartilages in 
a progressive state of formation. Before ossification takes place, disease 
exists not less than three or four months. There are some horses with 
a predisposition to this disease, and when knocked about the disease 
would develope itself more quickly. The disease in the horse in ques¬ 
tion had developed itself in both fore feet, but in the off foot the most. 
The flat sole and thin hoof would constitute unsoundness, if nothing 
else did. I examined the hocks, and found both diseased. There was 
chronic disease. Ulceration was also going on between the two cunei¬ 
form bones. I have no doubt the horse was unsound on the 31st March, 
and even two months before that time. The animal will be unsound as 
long as it lives. I attribute the horse’s broken knee, which I saw, chiefly 
to the navicular disease. Owing to the pain produced by putting his 
feet to the ground, the horse no doubt stumbled and broke his knee. 
Cross-examined by Mr. Jones—Horses can do a good deal of work 
and yet be unsound. The horse was lame. I could discover that he 
was lame in his fore legs, and that his action was impeded in his hind 
legs. When I examined the horse I saw it walk and trot. 1 discovered 
lameness on his trotting both before and behind. I had him walked and 
trotted on turf. If I had seen him walked and trotted on hard ground 
the lameness must have been more visible. I think a horse with the 
disease I have described could perform an ordinary day’s work. The 
horse must have been lame, more or less, from the 1st January. His 
action must have been impeded from that time, at least, though it might 
not have been observable to a common person. This impediment would 
gradually increase into observable lameness. When running to grass, 
the. lameness might disappear, but the disease would still be going on. 
When both feet are suffering together, it makes a difference, and does 
not produce that nodding of the head. It is possible for a horse to have 
all the diseases I have stated, and not exhibit much lameness. The 
horse whose navicular bone I produced went comparatively free from 
lameness almost up to the time of his death. On handling the bones of 
the fetlock of the off fore foot, I form my opinion that the horse has 
navicular disease. The horse goes badly down hill because the navi¬ 
cular bone is pressed on the other. If the horse had disease in one leg 
only, it would have gone more lame. Ossification has just commenced 
forming in the specimen I produce. Never examined the horse in 
question either before or since the 22d July last. (Mr. Jones here 
handed in a certificate, dated 31st August last, signed by the witness, 
wherein it was stated that he had that day examined a cob-horse for 
Mr. Henry Fussell, and that it was perfectly sound.) 
Cross-examination continued—I admit the certificate which has been 
put in to be in my handwriting, but it does not refer to the horse in 
question. (Mr. Jones said he should be able to contradict this by the 
testimony of three witnesses.) I had the horse referred to in the certi¬ 
ficate now produced walked and trotted on rough ground and examined 
it thoroughly for nearly a quarter of an hour, and I still say that the 
horse mentioned in that certificate is sound. 
Re-examined by Mr. Edlin—A horse is unsound when ossification 
begins, although lameness may not have commenced. A man named 
Fussell brought the horse to my yard on the 31st August last. Some 
