we have mentioned, it goes without saying
that there is either a simple congestion or an actual inflammation,
localized or general, of the laminae of the injured foot. In neither case,
however, can the resulting mischief be closely compared with the lesions
attending an attack of laminitis proper, a disease which appears to have an
almost specific cause, and to run a course peculiarly its own.

The specific cause we have indicated as existing can, in the present state
of our knowledge, be only vaguely described as a poisoned state of the
blood-stream. This, as clinical evidence teaches us, may result from a
variety of causes.

Among these, by far the most common is that state of the circulation
induced by excessive feeding with too stimulating or too irritating a diet.
In any case, where the use of old oats as a staple diet is departed from,
and where the quantity and manner of using the substitute is left to the
discretion of careless or unskilled attendants, trouble is likely to ensue.
The food more prone, perhaps, than any other to bring about an attack is
wheat improperly prepared--that is, uncooked or unground. So much so is
this the case that one full meal of this provender to an animal unused to
it is sufficient to lead to a train of symptoms often ending fatally.

Beans, peas, barley, rye, new maize, or even new oats, are all liable, if
carelessly used, to have the same effect.

It is the laminitis following feeding on new oats that has caused us to
apply to the food the adjective 'irritating.' Here, more often than not,
the peristaltic action of the bowels is found to be abnormally in evidence,
and the excessive use of the diet is always accompanied by a more or less
fluid discharge of the intestinal contents.

In addition to the foods we have mentioned, many others might be
enumerated, more especially the numerous 'made-up' feeding materials now
on the market. Many are composed of substances that may be regarded as
absolutely opposed to the correct feeding of a horse, and their use can
only be followed by this and other evil results.

Another most fruitful cause of laminitis is a severe and continued
inflammatory condition of the system elsewhere. It is the laminitis known
to veterinary surgeons as 'metastatic,' and perhaps the two most notable
examples of it are the laminitis following a prolonged attack of pneumonia,
and the 'Parturient Laminitis' occurring as a concomitant of septic
metritis.

Partu