OBSERVATIONS ON SOUNDNESS. 
823 
lasted sufficiently long to enable them to agree that a frac¬ 
ture had taken place. 
Three or four days afterwards, so I was informed, the horse 
became comparatively sound, to the astonishment of the 
resident “vet.,” who had been extremely attentive to his 
patient, when all at once he came to the conclusion that 
the case was some chronic affair, which he had made out 
against the horse and against me . 
It appears that this practitioner had made inquiries rela¬ 
tive to the animal, and learned that once upon a time he had 
suffered lameness; but being somewhat at sea as to the 
true nature of this, and being desirous, of course, of 
placing the onus upon my broad shoulders , he wrote a long 
letter to the officer, detailing all he had heard with reference 
to the black gelding. The owner became perplexed, and I 
was favoured with a sight of the animal, in order to set the 
matter right, as he asserted. I found the foot had been 
reduced in size; the wall was fully one inch shorter than the 
other; the sole had been pared extremely thin; all very 
good treatment in his mode of practice, I dare say. And to hide 
the effects of his knife he had carefully trimmed the hair 
close to the coronary substance, so that the two feet should 
be as nearly alike as possible, as he had heard that I was 
to see the horse. I inquired of the groom who had exercised 
his skill in the wav described, when he told me that it 
was Mr. “Veterinary Surgeon.” I found the foot had re¬ 
ceived considerable compression and concussion during the acci¬ 
dent; that the anterior portion of the wall had been bruised 
and cut through , and had caused injury to the lamellated 
structure, which I supposed was the true cause of the exces¬ 
sive pain witnessed at the time the animal was first seen. 
The treatment adopted was counter-irritation, and rest for a 
week. While my servant was rubbing the vesicatory on the 
coronet a large quantity of pus oozed through the wounded 
horn, which was sufficient to show that the soft parts 
aforementioned were injured, and not the bone. 
In a fortnight the horse was sent to work, and in a month 
from the time I saw him he was carrying the officer again 
across the country as well as ever. All that unpleasantness and 
malpractice, as shown by Mr. “Vet.,” was referable to the 
symptom of pointing. It will thus be seen that some care is 
required in the examination of the feet, and that hasty 
opinions are at once at variance with sound practice. 
Navicularthritis (this is an ugly word) is a disease to 
be dreaded by owners of horses especially, nor are we at all 
times placed in an enviable position with reference to it. We 
