266 
A. ZUNDEL. 
exudations, and especially of a hypersecretion of the horny sub¬ 
stances, in which case it becomes chronic laminitis or founder; 
an affection which gives rise to alterations of a peculiar nature, 
and leads to certain changes in the form and character of the 
hoof. We do not agree to the divisions admitted by several 
authors, into traumatic laminitis , rheumatismal laminitis , and 
rnetastatic laminitis. 
I. Symptoms. —Laminitis, in most instances, is preceded by 
certain general symptoms, such as are premonitory of the invasions 
of ordinary inflammatory diseases, but of an uncertain signifi¬ 
cance. There is dullness, general insensibility, muscular tremb¬ 
lings, and stiffness of the loins. The respiration is accelerated, 
the pulse febrile, the mucous membranes injected, the mouth dry, 
the foecal discharges dry and coated, the urine scanty; and per¬ 
haps anorexia is present. Rodet, who held that laminitis is more 
a secondary than primitive affection, and that it is simply an in¬ 
flammatory anaisothermical fever which had localized itself, 
was obliged to acknowledge that this fever has nothing charac¬ 
teristic, and that it is always followed by laminitis. 
It is certain, however, that but a short time elapses—from sever¬ 
al hours to one or two days—after the originating cause has become 
active, before the bloody congestion of the reticular tissues and 
the peculiar phenomena belonging to the disease become manifest. 
It is only when the capillary circulation of the foot has consider¬ 
ably increased, and when the rigidity of the structure prevents 
the swelling of the podophyllous tissue, that laminitis truly 
exists. 
Laminitis in the horse has the following principal symptoms: 
Considerable heat of the entire foot, extreme sensibility with in¬ 
tense pain, increasing rapidly, and obliging the animal to rest up¬ 
on the sound legs, in order to relieve the affected ones; difficulty 
and uncertainty in walking; and sometimes a peculiar trembling 
of the muscles of the patellar face of the femur, and of those of 
the extensors of the fore arm, which fill the triangular space 
formed by the scapula and the humerus. The physiognomy al¬ 
ways indicates intense suffering. The pulse is hard, the respira¬ 
tion increased, and the skin hot, and in places moistened by a 
