816 
LAMINITIS AND NAVICULAR DISEASE. 
I am strongly impressed with the idea that it is a pre-exist¬ 
ing germ, as certain as the oak is contained in the acorn. 
Nature^s laws are wise; physical defects must assert them¬ 
selves; the creature has no power to change the inherent 
conditions of its nature; nature can fully accomplish her 
task, but she always stops at the limit of her destination ; the 
inalienable attribute w ? as stamped upon the foetus in utero, 
and cannot be forged by human invention. 
Acute or chronic diseases, properly speaking, belong to a 
different type to those of an hereditary origin : acute diseases 
are generally referable to extraneous and violent causes and 
are comparatively of short duration; chronic diseases are 
generally referable to the continuance of causes inadequate 
in themselves to induce acute diseases, but hereditary dis¬ 
eases are referable to no apparent cause, they are a natural 
condition in the development of the animal. I could illus¬ 
trate this truth by multitudes of living examples. A mare I 
w 7 as attending the other day for gripes—she is now seven 
years old—was born a cripple, so lame of the fore feet and 
legs that for several weeks she had to be held up w 7 hilst she 
sucked; she had spelks, laced boots, and various contrivances 
to assist her to stand and walk; she got to walk straight 
and work well, but has never been free from lameness a day. 
Her sister, nine years old, has been a cripple ever since three 
years old; their mother was a sad cripple from six months 
old, and the grandmother w as also a cripple. There are no 
appearances whatever to account for the lameness, only 
navicular disease. These were each of them long-legged, 
long-jointed animals, the reverse of stunted upright pasterns. 
Mr. Pratt, V.S., of Mashan, has kindly furnished me wdth a 
number of w r ell-authenticated cases of navicular disease being 
transmitted to several generations, and where the navicular 
bones w T ere found, in several instances, to be hollow 7 , and 
an absence of disease in the joint. I also remember a mare 
that was shod a great many years at my forge ; she had a 
strange unconquerable aversion to be shod; she w^as not 
exactly vicious, but it was exceedingly difficult to keep her 
foot; all her colts had the same propensity, exactly the same 
knack of getting their feet from the smith, and the same 
aversion to be shod. 
In the second place, let us inquire into the particular 
tissues affected. 
What is Laminal Tissue ? 
It is that extremely highly organized structure which 
connects the coffin-bone to the hoof; one of the most vas- 
