LAMINITIS AND NAVICULAR DISEASE. 577 
that it is quite possible a slight lameness may exist at the 
time, or even before going to the fair, and yet the breeder or 
dealer be quite unconscious of it. Neither of them are pro¬ 
fessional men, nor, perhaps, expert in detecting lameness, or 
they may not have had the horse run out upon the hard 
pavement to test him. Indeed such a thought as his being- 
lame had never once occurred to their minds; therefore there 
was no necessity for such a procedure. 
Now, what other inference is deducible but the one I 
am contending for, viz., that the parts had sustained or 
acquired a morbid condition, and had become susceptible to 
yield, and, having yielded, pain is the result; troublesome, 
obstinate tenderness, and too often, alas ! permanent lame¬ 
ness ? The veterinary surgeon, on his first visit, being told 
that the horse was never lame before, does not feel justified 
in pronouncing definitely upon the nature of the case. The 
lameness has, also, no precise or clear cause ; there is no¬ 
thing apparently to account for it; but after bleeding, 
purging, poulticing, &c. &c., he finds that the lameness con¬ 
tinues stationary. Had it been merely of a simple kind and 
altogether recent, it is quite reasonable to conclude that it 
would have subsided with such treatment. The practitioner 
may have had some misgivings in his own mind, which are 
now confirmed and proved to be facts. He now speaks out, 
and calls it “ chronic navicular diseasefor, lo ! and behold! 
the other foot is also showing suspicious symptoms of fixed 
lameness. If he be a man of a candid and enlightened mind, 
it is not incompatible with common sense, honesty, and ex¬ 
perience, for him to say, “ These parts must of necessity have 
been for some time getting into a state of disease, but that 
such disease was in an obscure, latent state, and not sufficient 
to produce lameness. Now, however, from one or other of 
the above-stated causes, or from some other similar excite¬ 
ment, the disease has assumed a more active form/ 5 In the 
majority of these cases the practitioner will come out of the 
contest more in the character of the vanquished than the 
victor. 
I am, dear Sir, 
Yours most truly, 
Thomas Greaves. 
