54 WEST OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
the result of feeding principally on straw. I have also known it on 
many occasions to be the effect of eating an inordinate quantity of 
corn (wheat especially). I may also here observe that I have under¬ 
stood from a friend who has been some years in the State of Illinois, 
in America, that the disease is there very common as a result of in¬ 
judicious feeding upon maize. It is also the effect of metastasis. 
Over-exertion used to be much oftener a cause than it is at the 
present day. Horses are now much better prepared or conditioned 
for work, and are less frequently called upon to do very fast and 
long road journeys. About two years since I was called a distance 
of sixteen miles to see a case of acute laminitis in all four feet of a 
five-year-old hack mare, not fat, which had been running in a field 
for some time with a number of cows suffering from the foot-and- 
mouth disease, which induced me to examine the mouth of the 
mare, when I found that her tongue and gums had the same 
appearance as the cows’ mouths, but not to the same extent. The 
mare recovered, but not without some alteration of the structure of 
the feet, as the treatment which I prescribed was not fully carried 
out, the owner being from home, the case was neglected. That is 
the only case arising from that cause which ever came under my 
notice, although I have heard Professor Varnell and others state 
that they have seen such cases. Since 1839, when the epidemic 
disease of the mouth and feet of cattle was imported, laminitis has 
been very common in the cow, sheep, and pig. I have seen unshod 
colts very lame from it after travelling long distances on the roads. 
Cattle also suffer from the same cause. I have also had several 
cases shortly after foaling, but in every case the mare was very fat. 
The ordinary cause of laminitis in the horse is plethora and the' 
want of exercise, quite independent of size, whether a small pony 
or a heavy dray-horse. It is a question of fat and idleness. If any 
particular-shaped feet are more predisposed to it than others, it is 
the flat-soled, weak-crusted, and the narrow upright feet (donkey 
shaped). I have many times known it to occur to fat horses which 
have been at grass for months without having been haltered. During 
the time I have been engaged writing this article, I have been called 
to two cases of subacute laminitis in the fore feet; one in a carriage 
horse, sixteen hands high, with strong upright feet, which had been 
taken up from grass, fat, and placed in a stable for six days without 
exercise, when the disease began to show itself. After a fortnight’s 
treatment it was quite free from lameness or altered structure of the 
feet, and fit to resume its ordinary work. The other case was that 
of a thirteen hands pony, very fat, and with rather flat feet, which had 
also been taken from grass about a fortnight, and had been very 
quietly driven in a small phaeton two hours per day for the last 
three days, when the disease made its appearance. After a week’s 
treatment the pony was fit to resume its work, free from lameness 
or altered structure of the feet. I may here remark that my 
assistant, Mr. J. V. Blake, V.S., tells me that some time since he 
had a case similar to the last named, and from what he had read in 
the Veterinarian he was induced to put on the hobbles and cast 
