738 
LAMINITIS. 
Questions. 
What is the inference from this ? 
What is laminitis ? 
Prove that it is more than simple in¬ 
flammation of the laminae. 
What structure is primarily affected 
in the disease termed laminitis ? 
What is the pathological state of 
this vascular tissue ? 
What symptoms are there that in¬ 
dicate the primary seat of con¬ 
gestion to be the interior of the 
pedal bone ? 
How has this morbid change been 
brought about ? 
What has interrupted the controll¬ 
ing power of the sympathetic 
nervous system ? 
What are the first symptoms of this 
congested state ? 
Does the congestion extend ? 
Why does the animal throw his 
weight on his heels ? 
What is the consequence of his re- 
mainiuing unrelieved in this posi¬ 
tion ? 
Answers. 
That it is not rheumatic. 
Query, What ? 
Neither the Prench operation of 
stripping the hoof from the sen¬ 
sitive laminse, which undoubtedly 
causes acute inflammation; nor 
punctures of the laminse, causing 
true inflammation and suppura¬ 
tion, nor sinous wounds extend¬ 
ing from the sole to the coronet, 
, also attended by true inflamma¬ 
tion of the laminse, ever cause the 
diagnostic symptoms of laminitis, 
namely progression on the heels. 
The vascular tissue ramifying in the 
os pedis. 
It is acute congestion. 
Pirst. The excessive pain caused by 
distended vessels in a structure 
that cannot yield. 
Second. The dilatation of the fora¬ 
mina in chronic cases, showing 
that nutrition of the bone has 
been suspended or greatly modi¬ 
fied. 
Through the arrest of the controll¬ 
ing power of the sympathetic 
nerves over the vessels at so great 
a distance from the nerve cen¬ 
tres. 
Whatever is known to cause the 
disease termed laminitis, such a 
cause operating on the sympathe¬ 
tic nervous centres, producing 
excessive expenditure of nerve 
force at the seat of irritation, 
diverts the nervous power from 
its peripheries. 
Acute pain, heat, throbbing arteries, 
&c., and the animal’s weight 
thrown on his heels. 
Yes, to all the vascular tissues of 
the foot. 
To relieve the congested and in¬ 
tensely painful vessels of the foot. 
He does this by throwing his 
weight on the flexor tendons, and 
on the soft and almost insensitive 
structures of the posterior part of 
the foot. 
Displacement of the pedal bone. 
