30 
DR. G. C. PRITCHARD. 
side toe is reduced we will usually find the lameness corre¬ 
spondingly removed, perhaps not instantly, but in a few days 
the acute lameness will be gone and the same remarks will 
apply to ringbones and splints. In navicular lameness we have 
the long, high toe as compared to the heel, elevating the toe of 
the os pedis, destroying harmony in the navicular articulation, 
causing friction, which produces inflammation, which in turn 
dries up and robs the joint of its natural lubricating synovia. 
Then follow structural changes, such as destruction of articular 
cartilage, fibrilization of tendons, adhesions, ossifications and 
all the other changes incidental to navicular trouble, and the 
result is a poor decrepit, dejected animal, compelled to travel 
on our hard-paved streets from morning till night, suffering 
untold agony ; mutely appealing for sympathy, but unable to 
make its sufferings known, an object of compassion and sym¬ 
pathy from every passer-by, and should be a monument of dis¬ 
grace and shame to its inhuman owner; and to think that all of 
the years of suffering of the poor animal, and the financial loss 
to the owner, might have been prevented by so simple a thing 
as balancing the feet. 
Another very curious thing not generally understood is the 
cause of those soft, bursal enlargements about the fetlock joints 
of horses, usually called wind-puffs. Ninety per cent, of all 
driving horses wear the outside of the foot or shoe faster than 
the inside ; and if you will take a little pains to investigate this 
matter you will observe that the bursal enlargements are more 
pronounced on the outside, corresponding to the lowest part of 
the foot, which is unmistakable evidence of a low outside heel 
or both heels, being the cause of wind-puffs ; and if you will re¬ 
member what I have already said with reference to the cause of 
spavins, ringbones, splints, etc., it will be hardly necessary for 
me to add that all bony enlargements correspond to the highest 
part of the foot. Of course, exceptions will be found, due to 
recent changes having been made in the foot by the shoer, who 
has unknowingly perhaps balanced the foot. What .1 wish to 
impress more particularly on the minds of the members of this 
