696 
LAMINITIS AND NAVICULAR DISEASE. 
veterinary college ” was carried, and I declined membership 
solely on that account. 
Anxiety is expressed on all sides for the advancement of 
the veterinary profession; and as “ a house divided against 
itself cannot stand,’ 5 I do hope that veterinary surgeons, 
who have not already done so, will, so soon as may be, become 
members of the corporate body; for, as the leader in the 
Veterinarian expresses it, “ their abilities having been tested, 
why should they not become members of the Royal College 
of Veterinary Surgeons '/’ 5 Why not? indeed, say I. 
I have felt it my duty to make the above remarks, and I 
assure you that no one is more anxious for the well-being 
and the proper position of the veterinary profession than, 
Gentlemen, 
Yours respectfully. 
To the Editors of * The Veterinarian 
LAMINITIS AND NAVICULAR DISEASE. 
Reply to Mr. Greaves’s Letter on “ Laminitis and Navicular 
Diseasein the last number of the Veterinarian, p. 573. 
By Mr. W. Williams, V.S., Bradford. 
My dear Sir,—I think that the morbid condition of the 
feet termed laminitis may with safety, and with advantage to 
the illustration of its pathology, be studied under two distinct 
heads, viz., the acute, and that which is developed by a 
slower process, or is the result of an acute attack, and called 
chronic . 
Acute laminitis may occur to an animal with almost any 
form of foot. I do not think that the shape has much to do 
with it. It arises from some well-defined and understood 
cause. Speaking from my own experience, I have seen it 
result generally from over-exertion, and from what is called 
metastasis. I maintain that there is no hereditary tendency 
to this form ; in fact, I discuss it apart from the question of 
hereditary taint in the economy. Here we find that the soft 
parts only are affected, the morbid action very often passing 
off without the bony structure being at all involved. Can 
you not bring to your recollection many a case that threatened 
to be a most severe one of laminitis, after a few hours of suffer¬ 
ing pass off, and the animal become quite w’ell again? This 
