572 
THE TREATMENT OF LAMINITIS. 
veterinary surgeons in this country, but it is an opinion 
which is rapidly gaining ground. 
When we begin to speak of the molecular alteration of 
structure in iron caused by vibration, I fear we are going a 
long way from our subject. I believe, however, that vibra¬ 
tion, concussion, or jar causes changes in that metal which 
are all the more marked in proportion to the weight or mass 
of iron exposed to such influences. I have never observed 
any such changes in the metal of which horse-shoes are 
made; if fibrous when attached to the horse’s foot, the shoe 
will be fibrous when exposed to one or two months’ wear. 
Mr. Broad’s example of recovery, given in this month’s 
Veterinarian, would be much more satisfactory if we could 
have the veterinary surgeon’s reasons for discontinuing the 
use of the heavy bar shoes when he had been instructed how 
to use them. The case of recoverv alluded to in the letters 
forwarded to me was not a very reliable one, inasmuch as the 
cure was reported by a groom a few days after the shoes had 
been applied. Veterinary surgeons who are acquainted with 
the changes of structure that accompany chronic laminitis 
must know that it requires a longer space of time than days 
or weeks to effect anything like a cure. 
Mr. Broad confesses that his special shoes have proved a 
failure in- the hands of other practitioners. We ought 
to have some description of these unsuccessful trials, 
especially as he appears to designate congestion of the laminse 
laminitis,—a mistake that may account for the facility with 
which many of his cases are cured, while others are refractory 
or not successful. Congestion is not inflammation. 
In closing this discussion I beg to repeat what I before 
stated, that when rnv method of treating laminitis, and which 
has been successful hitherto, does not satisfy me, I will avail 
myself of the Markham-Broad stout ” shoes; but that I 
will never promise to use, or recommend to be used for 
general purposes, shoes in the slightest degree heavier than 
is absolutely necessary for the preservation of the horny box 
enveloping the horse’s foot, as I am quite satisfied that the 
conclusions Mr. Broad draws from his vibratile ” theory are 
the very opposite of the truth, and that heavy shoes, instead 
of being non-vibratile and a blessing to every horse compelled 
to drag them along, are ‘^vibratile” (in Mr. Broad’s sense 
of the term), and are injurious to feet and limbs. Modern 
theory and practice have amply demonstrated this to be the 
fact. 
It is certainly strange to be told that these massive shoes, 
when applied to a horse’s inflamed feet, allow him to throw 
