Chapter XIII (2)

When sanguineous or sappy corns are found, the method is, firstly to thin the sole, so as to render it pliable, especially over the seat of corn. Should a sappy corn have rendered the horn moist for any space, or should the discoloration caused by sanguineous corn be of any size, it is as well always to open the center of the part indicated: no matter should the cut release only a small quantity of serum or a little blood. Take away a small portion of horn; pare the sole till it yield to the pressure of the thumb. When such a proceeding is necessary, the bars may be entirely removed, and the wounds should be covered with some tar spread upon a pledget of fine tow. As soon as the orifice is protected by new horn, the horse may be shod with a leathern sole and returned to its proprietor.

Such a course would occupy little time--a week at most. Yet the great majority of horse proprietors appear to have "flinty hearts," as nearly all of them begrudge the necessary day of rest to the maimed animal which has been injured in their employment. The cry, where the horse is concerned, is "toil, toil!" The veterinary surgeon is often asked "if _absolute_ rest is imperative." He is frequently solicited to patch up the poor animal, so that it may do a _little_ work. As day after day passes onward, the tone becomes more and more authoritative. The horse is at last too often demanded from the hospital, and taken to resume ordinary labor before the injury is effaced. Should no evil effect ensue on such a culpable want of caution, the proprietor is apt to chuckle over his daring with another's sufferings, and to blame the science which would not incur risk, even to propitiate an employer.

The central angular mark indicates the place into which the liquid
stopping should be poured.
]

Corn is not generally reckoned unsoundness. If a horse be lame from corn, the lameness renders the horse unsound; but the corn does not. Such is the beauty of horse logic when pronounced in a court of justice! A corn may suppurate, or may provoke lameness at any moment. Still the corn, in the bleared eye of the law, is no sufficient objection to the purchase of a horse. The suppurated corn may lead to quittor--still, corn is not legal unsoundness. It is a pity such is the case, since it leads men to neglect that which is removable. When the sole is high, the shoe should always be accompanied by a leathern sole. Liquid stopping should be poured into the open space at the back of the foot; and at every time of shoeing, the smith should pare the sole quite thin, even until drops of blood bedew the surface of the horn. When corns appear in flat or fleshy feet, as shoeing time comes round, only have the very ragged portions of the frog taken away. Have the web of the shoe narrowed so as to remove all chance of pressure against the iron. Lower the heels of the shoe, or try a bar shoe with the bearing taken off over the seat of corn; should that not answer, next put on a three-quarter shoe: many horses, however, will go sound in tips, that cannot endure any other sort of protection to the foot. By resort to one or the other of these measures, that injury, which in the learned eye of the law is of no consequence, but which, nevertheless, may lead to terrible lameness, or even lay the foundation for a quittor, may be greatly mitigated.

=Bruise of the sole= is an accident leading to effusion of blood--so far it resembles corn; but it is dissimilar in not occurring on a part subject to the same degree of motion, and, therefore, is not so severe in the consequences to which it leads. It is caused by treading on a stone, and is removed by paring off the horn which has been discolored or lies immediately beneath the injury. It seldom leads to great lameness or gives rise to serious results. It is treated after the manner directed for corn; but it is always advisable to shoe once, with leather, the horse which has suffered from bruise of the sole. The difference between corn and bruise of the sole is simply this: the first is an injury produced by a cause which is always within the control of the proprietor, and which, if neglected, is likely to lead to the most disastrous maladies; the last is purely an accident, to which any horse at any time is liable, and with ordinary care is not likely to give rise to any serious consequences.

=Prick of the foot= is an injury incurred while the horse is being shod. There are two sorts of this accident: one, when the nail penetrates the fleshy substance of the sensitive laminæ and draws blood; the other is when a nail is driven too fine, or among the soft horn which lines the interior of the hoof, and consequently lies near to the sensitive laminæ. The first is of the more immediate importance; but the last may be equally serious in its effect. As the horse works, the strain upon the shoe bends the nail fixed into soft horn. It thus is made to press upon the sensitive laminæ, and may provoke suppuration.

The smaller opening represents prick of the foot: the larger space
indicates bruise of the sole. The extent to which the horn may be
removed, in the generality of cases, is also indicated.
]

To detect whether the smith is at fault, the foot should be first squeezed between the pincers as for common corn; then have the nails withdrawn one by one, and mark each as it is removed. If one appears moist or wet, have the hole of that nail freely opened. Let the shoe be replaced, leaving that nail out. Put a little tow, covered with tar, over the wound, and shoe with leather. If, however, lameness should still be present, the shoe must again be taken off and the injury treated as recommended for suppurating corn.

Blame the smith who pricks a horse and conceals the fact; punish the fellow to the extent of your power. But the man who pricks a foot and acquaints you with the circumstance, deserves civility. The last enables you to take proper measures, such as paring out, etc., and thereby you avoid all unpleasantness. The first braves chances with your living property, and deserves to suffer if the hazard go against him.

QUITTOR.

This is a severe and painful disease. Many a horse is, at the present moment, working with a suppurative wound above the hoof, within the interior of which run numerous sinuses. The police arrest the driver of the horse when the condition is so bad as permits the collar to wring the shoulders. Of all other shapes of misery they seem ignorant. Animals limp over the stones, every step being an agony; but the policemen look on at such pictures with placid countenances. Horses are driven at night in a state of glanders which renders them dangerous to mankind; yet no officer thinks of looking at the head of an animal for the sign of suffering or the warning of public peril. Creatures, in every stage of misery, may be seen openly progressing along the streets of the metropolis; but so the shoulders be sound, the brute who goads them forward performs his office with impunity. Still, it is something gained, that the law has recognized the want of man's _absolute_ power over the feelings of those creatures intrusted to his care. Let us hope, as knowledge extends, the legal perceptions will be quickened. It is partly with this view that the present "illustrated work" is published.

=Quittor= is a terrible disorder. To comprehend thoroughly the pain which accompanies it, the reader must understand the structures through which it has to penetrate, and the substances it has to absorb. All parts are slowly acted upon in proportion as they are lowly organized. Cartilage is the structure into the composition of which no blood-vessels enter. Next to cartilage is bone, which, though supplied with vessels, is, on account of its mixture with inorganic matter, exposed only to slow decay, and the exfoliation of which is effected at a vast expense to the vital energy. These substances mainly compose the foot of the horse. In addition, there is ligament, almost as slowly acted upon as bone; disease in which substance is accompanied by the greatest anguish. Horn is an external protection; but that material, though an animal secretion, is strictly inorganic: when cut it does not occasion pain--neither does it bleed. If a portion of horn should press upon the flesh it must be removed by the knife; for, unlike the more highly-gifted structures, there is no chance of its being absorbed.

The hoof, therefore, being the external covering to the foot of the horse, and not being liable to the same action as organic secretions, serves to confine pus or matter when generated within its substance. Pus could work through the largest organized body; but it cannot escape through the thinnest layer of horn. Now, most of the other substances which enter into the composition of the horse's foot are such as slowly decay; but those parts which slowly decay being without sensation during health, occasion the most extreme agony when diseased.

The cause of quittor always is confined pus or matter, which, in its effort to escape, absorbs and forms sinuses in various directions within the sensitive substances of the hoof. In the hind feet of cart-horses quittor generally commences at the coronet; the coronet is wounded or bruised by the large calkins or pieces of iron turned up at the back of the hind shoes, which are universally worn by animals of heavy draught. Any one who has punctured or cut the coronet of a dead horse knows this structure is as difficult to penetrate and as hard to divide as cartilage itself; the consequence of an injury to such a part is, the bruise produces death of some deep-seated portion of the compact coronet. Nature, after her own fashion, proceeds to cast off that which is without vitality, or, in other words, she divides the dead from the living tissues by a line of suppuration; but the matter thus located cannot readily escape through the harsh material of the horse's coronet. It is confined and becomes corrupt, while the constant motion of the foot and the higher organization of the secreting membrane of the horn inclines the pus to take a downward direction. However, it is more difficult for pus to pierce the horny sole than to penetrate the coronet; so the effort is renewed above; numerous pipes or sinuses are thus formed upon the sensitive laminæ; the fleshy sole is often under-run, and this mischief goes on until the coronet, which becomes of enormous size, at last yields to the increasing evil.

Another cause is pricking the sensitive part of the foot with a nail during shoeing; the wound generates pus, the pus cannot penetrate the horn, and the motion of the coffin-bone causes it to absorb upward, until after some time it breaks forth at the coronet.

Which supposed the outward covering of the coronet and the horny
wall of the hoof removed, to expose the ravages of quittor, when
commencing in the coronet of a heavy horse.
]

The covering of the coronet and horny crust supposed to be absent,
and exposing the manner in which any suppurating injury to the sole
of the foot ultimately causes a wound above the hoof.
]

Another cause is corn; the horse's corn is nothing more than a bruise; the bruise, in some instances, is severe, and takes on the suppurative action. The pus, as before, is confined, and by the motion of the coffin-bone it is propelled upward till it breaks forth at the coronet, which, as before, enlarges to deformity; in short, any injury done to the sole of the foot or to the coronet above it may produce quittor.

The leading sign of quittor, before it breaks, is a large swelling at the coronet, attended with heat and excessive lameness. In cart-horses, it is usually present in the hind feet; but in the lighter species it more frequently occurs in the fore feet. It generally appears upon the inner side of the hoof, though, of course, it has often been witnessed upon the outer coronet. Quittor becomes a huge swelling before it breaks. The amount of tumefaction symbolizes the amount of anguish; it is, indeed, a most painful disorder.

A QUITTOR, AS IT DENOTES ITS EXISTENCE BEFORE THE PUS ABSORBS ITS
WAY THROUGH THE CORONET.
]

The animal, after the pus has found vent, becomes easier; fever departs; the appetite returns, and the enlargement greatly diminishes.

In the cure of a quittor, all depend upon the time during which the disease has been allowed to exist; if brought under notice at first, and from an examination a belief is confirmed that the sinuses are wholly superficial, no treatment is comparable to the plan of slitting them up, the method of doing which will be described in a subsequent chapter; this at once affords relief. The horse, which was limping lame, upon getting up puts the foot fearlessly to the ground, and trots sound.

If we have reason to believe the matter has burrowed inwardly, and that one or more sinuses have penetrated the cartilages and threaten the deeper-seated parts, still we should settle with the knife all those pipes which are superficial. This gives a better view of the structures supposed to be diseased; then, if among the matter thrown out by the healing wounds there is seen a speck or two of fluid, which, being gelatinous and transparent, looks dark among the opaque creamy pus, be sure there remains further work to be accomplished.

An attempt to depict the small size of the transparent fluid,
indicating the existence of a sinus, when it appears at the wound
whence issues the stream of thick and creamy pus.
]

Cut a small twig from the stable broom; this is pliable, and, where a sinus is concerned, makes the best possible probe. With a knife, render it perfectly clean, as well as round or blunt at one end; then, while an assistant holds up the foot, insert it in the center of the dark fluid. If it should not at first detect an opening, you must not give up the trial; the probe must be moved about, and even a smaller one procured. A sinus does exist; of that you have positive proof; the pipe being found, mix some powdered corrosive sublimate with three times its bulk of flour; then wet the probe; dip the probe into the powder and afterward insert it into the sinus. Do this several times till you feel certain that every portion of the pipe is brought in contact with the caustic.

The horse, subsequently, will become very dull; the foot will grow very painful: thus it will continue for two days. About the third day, a white, curd-like matter is discharged from the orifice. The lameness disappears, and the spirits are regained.

It is against our inclination to publish such directions; but the author has knowledge of no gentler or more speedy measure. The better plan for the gentleman who is tender of his servants' feelings, and infinitely the cheaper for the person who is regardful of his pocket, is to have every animal inspected by a qualified veterinary surgeon so soon as it displays acute lameness. Were such the practice, corn, prick of the foot, or wound of the coronet need not run on to quittor. That is an affection which loudly pronounces man to utterly disregard the welfare of his most willing slave. It always originates in neglect. It always requires time for its development. It springs from that idle and silly maxim which, when a horse falls lame, treats the circumstance as though the honest animal were shamming, and teaches a hard-hearted proprietor to work the poor drudge sound again.

CANKER.

=Thrush= is a disease that causes a certain liquid to be secreted which has the property of decomposing the horn. =Canker= is a disease which not only is attended with a liquid having a like property, but the last-named affection also causes fungoid horn to be secreted. Canker, therefore, appears to be an aggravation of thrush; and anybody who has been much among the animals of the poorer classes may have observed these diseases lapse into each other: thrush will, through neglect, become canker.

Thrush appears to be the commencement of the disorganization of the food. Canker is the total perversion of the secreting powers belonging to the same organ. In thrush, a foul humor having a corruptive property is poured forth. In canker, something is superadded to this. The horn itself is sent forth in large quantity as a soft, unhealthy material, totally divested of elasticity and devoid of all healthy resistance.

Any animal, being exposed to the exciting cause, may exhibit thrush; but, before canker seems capable of being produced, poor living must have undermined the constitution. Old horses--pensioners, as they are humanely termed--when turned out to grass, frequently have canker, which otherwise should be confined to the animals of poverty, on which bad lodging, no grooming, stinted food, and hard work produce sad effects. The stable in which a case of canker occurs is lamentably disgraced. Every attendant in it ought to be discharged, as the surest evidence of a gross want of industry is thereby afforded.

A horse, perhaps once the pride of the favorite daughter, may descend to be the hack of some bawling dust collector. Its wants increase as age progresses; but with the accumulation of years its hardships augment. It is sad, very sad, to stand within the shed of some corn-chandler, and witness, as the day draws in, ragged boys advance and shout out, "Three pen'orth o' 'ay bunds." Upon those hay-bands it is even more sad to reflect what creature will be obliged to subsist--probably the darling once of some aristocratic children! Now, cramped and diseased, it may receive no other food between this time and the following evening. The diet being meager, all the rest is on a parallel. The wretched animal is purchased only for such a space as it may pull through before it passes to the knackers. Every day of life is looked upon as a clear gain, for the carcass may be sold for very nigh the price which has been paid for the living body. The commonest attention is denied; its bed is filth, and its nightly hay-bands are cast upon the flooring.

What, the humane reader may inquire, can be done to prevent such a state of things? Something surely might be accomplished. To make men good, it is first necessary to educate them by communicating knowledge and also by preventing the commission of wickedness. Were the sanitary laws enforced in their spirit, no man would keep an animal who had not proper accommodation for the creature he possessed as a property. A horse or a donkey consumes much more air than any human being. The air ejected from the lungs of a quadruped is deprived of all life-sustaining qualities. The filth of a stable is as corruptive as any cess-pool connected with a laborer's cottage. The atmosphere which can in the horse engender disease cannot promote health in the superior animal. Yet how does it happen that, while sanitary reports are eloquent upon filth and fluent about cess-pools--while they descant learnedly upon foul abodes, and enter into all particulars concerning corrupted atmosphere--the close, contaminated stables in which all costermongers, and some gentlemen, shut up their drudges when the labor of the day is over, are never alluded to, are altogether abjured, as though such nuisances had no existence?

Canker, like thrush, is not generally attended with much lameness. It often astonishes us that, with a foot in such a condition, the animal can progress so soundly. It invariably commences at the seat of thrush or in the cleft of the frog. A liquid more abominable than that of thrush, and rather more abundant, issues from that part. Likewise it frequently exudes from the commissures, which unite the horny sole to the frog. The horn, also, becomes not only disorganized, but more ragged than in thrush. It bulges out at first, and ultimately flakes off, exposing a substance not much more resistant than orange-peel. The substance is horn in a fungoid state. Its fibers run from the center to the circumference; and between the space of each fiber is lodged a clear liquid, which becomes tainted and dark colored by mingling with the horn that it dissolves and corrupts.

The horn turned back, so as to display the altered state of the
frog, which indicates a severe attack of the disease.
]

Showing the great abundance of fungoid horn secreted around the
margin of the foot. No notice is purposely taken of the frog in this
illustration.
]

The fungus is secreted in quantity, and always is most abundant when located about the edge of the sole. Here the papillæ are largest, and here the granulations attain their greatest magnitude. The unresistant horn of canker becomes somewhat hard upon the surface of the sole, and large flakes peel off. Cut into, it displays no sensation; and this is fortunate, inasmuch as it considerably reduces the difficulties surrounding the treatment of a badly-cankered foot.

Concerning treatment, when the disease is confined to one hind foot, or even affects both posterior feet, the case may be undertaken with some degree of confidence. When it has involved one or more of the fore feet, it is always difficult to eradicate; and, in the majority of cases--being guided by the age of the animal--a cure had better not be attempted.

When a horse is cankered all round, the disease is apt to seem capricious. It may be cured in three feet; but it will linger in the fourth, resisting art's resources. Suddenly measures before tried in vain seem to be endowed with marvelous efficacy. The diseased member, which hitherto no treatment could touch, now heals as by its own accord. However, before we can express the full of our satisfaction, canker once more breaks out again in one of the feet which had been cured; thus the affection dodges about till patience is exhausted.

Canker has hitherto been reckoned an intractable disorder. It is mostly seen in heavy horses, with weak, flat feet. These creatures proverbially receive but little grooming. They are esteemed only for their labor, and honored with small attention, which does not decidedly fit them for their work. Their stables are seldom to be cited as examples of what a horse's home should be. Their beds are never too clean; and a number of foul disorders, as thrush, grease, etc., are located among them. Their food is generally measured by the scale of profit and loss; for few cart-horses, in the generality of establishments, can boast of any extraordinary care being lavished on their comfort.

For the treatment of canker, the first thing is to attend to the stable. See that the building is lofty and well drained; that the ventilation is perfect, and the bedding unexceptionable. Then inspect the water, the oats, and the hay. Allow the horse a liberal support, and with each feed of oats mingle a handful of old beans. These things being arranged, order the animal into the forge. Cut away every portion of detached horn. When that is done, pare off carefully so much of the soft, diseased horn as the knife can readily separate. Then apply a dressing of the following strength to the diseased parts:--

Chloride of zinc Half an ounce.
Common flour Four ounces.
Mix, and apply dry on the foot.

To the sound parts use--

Chloride of zinc Four grains.
Flour One ounce.

Cover over the sound parts before you begin to dress the fungoid granulations.

Afterward tack on the shoe. Pad well, so as to obtain all the pressure possible; and fasten the padding on the foot by means of cross pieces of iron driven firmly under the shoe. Let the horse be carefully groomed, and receive four hours' exercise daily.

On the second day remove the padding. Cut off so much of the granulations as appear to be in a sloughing condition. Repeat the dressing, and continue examining and redressing the foot every second day. When some places appear to be in a state of confirmed health, an application of the following strength should be employed to such parts; but where the granulations continue to sprout, or the horn appears to be of a doubtful character, the caustic mixtures of the original strength must be used:--

Chloride of zinc Two grains.
Flour One ounce.

After some time, the dressings may be lengthened to every third day, but should not be carried to the distance which some practitioners recommend. When so long a period elapses between each examination, the foul and irritating discharge, being confined, does more injury than the delay can possibly produce good.

THE BOTTOM OF A HORSE'S FOOT WHICH HAS BEEN DRESSED FOR CANKER,
SHOWING HOW THE CROSS PIECES ARE PLACED AND FIXED.
]

1. That portion of a cankered foot which is advancing toward a
healthy condition.

2. Canker in a mitigated form, but still present.
]

In the plan of treatment here proposed, the chief reliance is placed on the action of chloride of zinc. It is the peculiar property of that agent to suppress fungoid granulations. The author has some experience in the use of this salt. Whenever he gave it to a groom to apply, and subsequently he found the wound clogged with proud flesh, the man was accused of having neglected to employ the lotion. The evidence on which the charge was made never, in a single instance, proved erroneous. To suppress fungoid granulation is to cure canker.

The application here advised is, moreover, cleanly. It is the most powerful disinfectant. It does not discolor, like the messes now in general use. It is more gentle in its action than undiluted sulphuric acid, etc. etc. It will cause none of those terrible fits of agony, during which all applications have to be removed, while the foot has to be bathed and poulticed. Notwithstanding all authors agree that the absence of water and the presence of pressure are indispensable to the cure of canker, the frequent dressings will not endanger the life, nor leave the foot in that condition which entails a deformed hoof upon the horse for the remainder of its existence.

THRUSH.

Veterinary writers are very fond of splitting hairs about words. =Thrush=, therefore, in most books, becomes "frush;" notwithstanding, if the reader should consult any professional authority, or a professor at either of the colleges, the person so appealed to will decidedly designate the disease as it is here spelled. The disorder therefore bears, in these pages, the name it carries in ordinary speech, and all far-fetched distinctions are discarded.

THRUSH IN THE FORE FOOT, WITH A THICK CRUST, A CONCAVE SOLE, AND A
SMALL FROG.
]

Thrush is a foul discharge issuing from the cleft of the frog, and attended with disorganization of the horn. It is derived from two causes--either internal disease or bad stable management. When internal disease gives rise to thrush, it is present in the fore foot. The quarters of the hoof are strong and high; the sole is thick and concave; the frog small and ragged. When bad stable management provokes the disorder, it shows itself in the hind foot, which may be of any shape; but the frog is generally large, while the discharge is more copious than in the former instance.

It is sad to think that the creature which lives but to toil, and whose existence is a type of such slavery that its greatest freedom is to labor, should be begrudged the bed whereon it reposes, or be doomed to stand in filth which will generate disease. The horse's foot is not very susceptible to external influences. It is incased in a hard and inorganic, yet elastic substance. Thus protected, it appears like praising the ingenuity of man when we say such a body is not proof against his neglect. The hoof is made to travel through mud and through water; it is created to canter over sand and over stones. It is capable of all its purposes; but it only seems not fitted to be soaking days and nights in the filth of a human lazar-house. The drainage of the stable is too often clogged; the ventilation bad; the bedding rotten, and more than half composed of excrement. All that passes through the body, from the inclination of the flooring, tends toward the hind feet. Over this muck the animal breathes. In it the creature stands, and on it the victim reposes.

No wonder the horn rots when implanted in a mass of fermenting filth. The fleshy, secreting parts, which it is the office of the hoof to protect, ultimately become affected; they take on a peculiar form of irritation; from the cleft of the frog a discharge issues; it becomes colored and offensive through being mixed with the decaying horn; the smell is most abhorrent; frequently it taints the interior of the place, and to the educated nose thus makes known its presence.

The first thing is to clear the stable, then to cleanse it thoroughly. Bed down the stalls with new straw, and attend to the animals themselves. Wash the feet well with water, in every pint of which is dissolved two scruples of chloride of zinc. The fetor will thus be destroyed, and the animal be made approachable. Place some of the fluid, to be used as required, near the smith, while the man cuts away the diseased frog. All the ragged parts are to be excised. The knife is to be employed until all the white, powdery substance is effectually removed.

AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE ABUNDANCE OF WHITE POWDER INVESTING DECAYED
HORN, AND OFTEN FOUND AFTER THE RAGGED PORTIONS OF A THRUSHY FROG
HAVE BEEN REMOVED.
]

The knife must then be used fearlessly. Every particle of the colorless investment of the frog must be excised. This is absolutely necessary toward the cure. It must be accomplished, although the flesh be exposed, or a large, bulging frog be reduced to the dimensions indicated in the annexed engraving.

Then the shoe is to be nailed on, and the horse to be returned to a clean stall.

The cause being removed, the effect will soon cease. No ointments are required. A little of the chloride of zinc lotion, three grains to the ounce of water, may be left in the stable, and the keeper should receive directions to bathe the frog with this once a day, or oftener if required. A piece of stick, having a little tow wrapped round one end, should also be given to the man, so that he may force the fluid between the cleft of the frog. No greasy dressing need be employed. The ordinary shoe is to be used. The diseased part is to be left perfectly uncovered, so that it may be the more exposed to the sweetening effects of pure air, while the earliest indication of any further necessity for the knife may be readily perceived. When the stench has disappeared, a little of the liquor of lead, of its original strength, will perfect the cure; and all that is requisite to prevent a return of the disorder is a reasonable attention to the cleanliness of the stable.

At this place, however, the reader may well reflect that, if the filth of the stable is capable of rotting the resistant and insensitive horn of the horse's foot, how much more is it likely to affect some of those delicate structures of which the bulky frame of the animal is composed! The air in which a man might object to live is altogether unfit for a horse to inhale. It is true, animals have breathed such an atmosphere, and continued to exist. So, also, is it true that men have been scavengers, and have followed that calling on account of what they esteemed its extraordinary healthfulness. Neither case establishes aught. The animal is by nature formed for large draughts of pure air. All other sustenance is as nothing, if the primary necessity of life be withheld. Tainted atmosphere is the source of more than half the evils horse-flesh is exposed to. Glanders, farcy, inflammation of the air-passages, indigestion, bowel complaints,--in fact, all diseases save those of a local character may spring from such a parent. Let every horse-keeper, therefore, if from no higher motive, at all events to conserve his property and to promote his pecuniary interest, be especially careful about the purity of his stables.

When thrush occurs in the fore feet, it is generally significant of navicular disease, and is most frequent in horses which step short or go groggily. The hoof feels hot and hard; a slight moisture bedews the central parting of the very much diminished frog. No odor may be smelt when the foot is taken up; but by inserting a piece of tow into the cleft of the frog, the presence of the characteristic symptom will be made unpleasantly apparent.

In this case, it is best to remove the ragged thrush and unsound horn, doing so, if required, even to the exposure of the sensitive frog. Afterward, simply wash the part with a little of the chloride of zinc and water, previously recommended. Repeat the cleansing every morning; the intention being, not to remove the thrush, as the horse mostly goes lame the instant that is stopped, but merely to correct the pungency of the morbid discharge, and thus prevent it in some measure from decaying the horn.

Clay, cow-dung, and other favorite filths, employed for stopping the horse's feet, if long continued, will produce thrush.

The worst specimen of the affection the author has encountered, was in a horse which had been turned into a moist straw-yard and neglected. The thrush generally witnessed in the hind feet may be present in all four; but the writer knows of no instance in which the thrush peculiar to the fore feet was also observed in the posterior limbs.

Thrush does not generally provoke lameness. In its more aggravated forms, however, it interferes with the pace; and the horse having only incipient thrush is liable to drop suddenly, if the foot be accidentally placed upon a rolling stone. Now, knowing our roads are made of stones, and that the bottom of the horse's foot is, in the ordinary manner of shoeing, entirely unprotected, it is curious to state that this disease is commonly not esteemed unsoundness. Any thrush, when present, may lead to acute lameness; then the lameness would be unsoundness; if thrush simply interferes with the action, although it endanger the safety of the rider, it is, by the code of veterinary legislation, esteemed no reasonable objection to the soundness of a horse. In the author's opinion, any animal should be esteemed unsound which has suffered from loss of or from change of any structure that ought to be present, or has any affection which reasonably could subject it to remedial treatment.

OSSIFIED CARTILAGES.

This signifies a conversion into osseous structure of the cartilages naturally developed upon the wings of the coffin-bone, or the bone of the foot. Here is a drawing of the largest specimen of this transformation which the writer ever witnessed. This was borrowed from the museum of T. W. Gowing, Esq.; and, from the magnitude of the disease, the writer should imagine the posterior of the pastern must have been in the living animal somewhat deformed.

The lateral cartilages of the horse's foot have undergone change and
become bone; being now continuous with the os pedis.
]

In heavy horses, working upon London stones, so certain are the cartilages to become ossified that several large firms pay no attention to this defect. They prefer an animal with a confirmed disease to a sound horse, which will be certain to be ill during the change, and the extent of whose subsequent alteration no one can predicate. So far these purchasers act wisely; but, in horses designed for fast work, =ossified cartilages= are a serious defect. They frequently occasion lameness, and always interfere with the pleasantness of the rider's seat. When accompanied by ring-bone, ossified cartilages give rise to the most acute and irremediable lameness.

Ossified cartilages are incurable. No drugs can force Nature to restore the original structure which has been destroyed. Once let a cartilage become ossified, and it remains in that condition for the creature's life. There is little difficulty in ascertaining when this change has taken place. The hand grasps the foot just above the coronet; the fingers are on one side, and the thumb upon the other. The cartilages lie at this place, immediately under the skin. Cartilage is soft, pliable, and semi-elastic. It yields very readily to pressure. However, when the thumb and fingers forcibly press the part, if, instead of feeling the substance under them yield, the hand is sensible only of something as hard as stone, or any way approaching to such a character, that is proof positive the cartilages are ossified, or are approaching change. If the horse has recently gone lame, and the seat of cartilages feels of a mixed nature--partly soft and partly hard--apply a blister to the coronet, so as to convert that which is a subacute process into an acute action, and with the cessation of activity hope to stop the deposit. Repeat the blister if absolutely necessary; but there is no occasion to subject more than the coronet, and a couple of inches above that structure, to the operation of the vesicatory. Indeed, blisters act more effectually upon confined spaces. This is all that can be accomplished, save by good feeding and liberal usage: these are essential, because every abnormal change denotes a deranged system; and this is, in the animal, soonest mended by generous diet. Perfect rest and two pots of stout per day may even be allowed, should the pulse be at all feeble.

ACUTE LAMINITIS, OR FEVER IN THE FEET.

This term implies that the disease is confined to the laminæ; the word certainly warrants an inference that the other secreting surfaces within the hoof are not implicated; such a meaning is generally conceived to be intended. The name, by inducing erroneous opinion, does much injury; the old appellation of fever in the feet is, therefore, much more characteristic and altogether more correct.

The entire of the fleshy portion of the foot is involved in this terrible affliction; any man, who has had an abscess beneath some part where the cuticle is strong, or who has endured a whitlow, may very distantly imagine the pain suffered by the horse during fever of the feet. Such an individual, if his creative powers be very brilliant, may vaguely conjecture the torture sustained by the quadruped; but no power possibly can realize to the full the anguish sustained by the animal. Man does not, like the horse, rest upon his finger's end, and, if he did, the pain he would then suffer could not be likened to the terrible affliction borne by the animal, for the following reasons: What is the weight of any man to that of a quadruped? What is the thickness of his skin or the substance of his nail to the hardness and stoutness of the horse's hoof? The human skin is elastic, and the end of the finger permits some swelling of its fleshy portion; but the secreting membrane of the horse's foot lies between two materials almost equally unyielding. Bone is within, and horn is without; the heat soon dries the last and deprives it of its elasticity; the first is naturally unyielding; thus the secreting substance, largely supplied with blood, because of inflammation, and acutely endowed with sensation when swollen and diseased, is compressed between the two bodies as in a vice. To conceive the amount of anguish and to imagine the violence of the disorder, we have only to recognize the pathological law, that Nature is conservative in all her organizations; she protects parts in proportion to their importance to the welfare of her creatures, and reluctantly allows injury to be inflicted on any vital organ, though she may even permit deprivation of those members which are not essential to the animal economy.

A man may lose a leg; he can live, enjoy life, and to a certain extent effect progression with a wooden substitute. Touch the heart of a man, however, and being ends. The heart is guarded by the ribs, and so securely is it protected that, even in battle, the organ is seldom punctured; the hoof of the horse is almost as important to the animal as is the heart to the human being. In a free state progression is necessary to the support of the body; when domesticated, the horse is valued according to its power to progress.

Yet, the member so important to the creature is, by the nature of =laminitis=, frequently disorganized, and a valuable quadruped, by the affliction, may be reduced from the highest price to a knacker's purchase money.

There is some dispute about the kind of hoof most liable to this disease. English authors incline toward the weak or slanting hoof. Continental writers, however, suppose the strong or upright hoof is most exposed to the affliction. Neither party, however, assert any kind of hoof to be exempt; therefore, it may be supposed, were all circumstances similar, every kind of foot would be equally subjected to laminitis.

There is but one cause for =acute laminitis=--man's brutality. Horses driven far and long over hard, dry roads, frequently exhibit the disease. Cab and post, as well as gentlemen's horses, after a fine day at Epsom or at Ascot, not unfrequently display the disorder. Animals which have to stand and strain the feet for any period, as cavalry horses upon a long sea voyage, if, upon landing, they are imprudently used without sufficient rest, will assuredly fail with this incapacitating malady. Any extraordinary labor may induce laminitis. Hunters, after a hard run, and racers, subsequently to heats, are liable to be attacked; especially should the ground be in the state we have before intimated.

Acute laminitis does not immediately declare itself; the pace of the animal, when its work is drawing to a close, may be remarkable; but this is attributed to the effects of exhaustion. The creature reaches the stable; the surface of the body is rubbed over; the manger and the rack are filled; a fresh bed is quickly shaken down, for, in the opinion of grooms, quiet does horses extreme good. The animal is left for the night, under the impression that it has everything one of the race could require.

The next morning the horse is found all of a heap, and the food untouched; the flesh is quivering; the eyes are glaring; the nostrils are distended, and the breath is jerking. The flanks are tucked up, the back is roached, the head is erect, and the mouth is firmly closed; the hind legs are advanced, to take the bearing from the inflamed fore members; the front feet are pushed forward, so as to receive the least possible amount of weight, and that upon the heels; but the feet thus placed are constantly on the move. Now, one leg is slightly bent; then, that is down and the other is raised; the horse is, according to a vulgar phrase, "dancing on hot irons."

The first indications--food untouched, glaring eyes, etc.--represent only excessive agony; the position of the body is symptomatic. The hind feet are thrust under the body in order to take the weight from the front, or the diseased organs; the fore feet are thrust forward and the head held erect, that the inflamed parts may be as much as possible beyond the center of gravity. In this attitude the wretched quadruped will stand, its sides heaving and its flesh creeping with the pain within the hoofs, and with the fire that burns within the blood. The teeth are occasionally heard to grind against each other; expressive sounds sometimes issue from the throat, and partial perspirations burst forth upon the body; it is a horrible picture of the largest agony!

The fore feet are mostly the seat of the disorder; all four may be involved, but the author has only witnessed the two front affected. The implication of the others are rather recorded wonders than general facts. The writer, in his professional experience, has met no one to whom a case of laminitis involving all four hoofs has been submitted.

Everything concerning laminitis is in confusion. It is not yet authoritatively ascertained whether horses lie down or stand up--whether the shoes should be taken off or left on--and what kind of treatment it is proper to adopt. Any dispute about general facts pronounces both parties wrong; it assures us that the experience of the disputants is somewhat limited. The circumstances cannot be very marked where the recognition is not universal: the treatment can only be not confirmed, because none attended with conspicuous benefit has been proposed.

Horses do often lie down in laminitis; but they more generally stand. When down, they should be suffered to remain; and when up, the first thing done should be the employment of slings. Place the cloth under the belly with the least possible noise; the man the horse is accustomed to, with orders to soothe the animal when alarm is excited, should be stationed at the head. The men who are arranging the slings should pause on the slightest sign of fear, and only resume their labor when confidence is restored. The ropes, however, must not be drawn tight and fixed. The ends of the cords should, by means of two extra pulleys, be carried to some distance from the animal. To the end of each rope ought to be fastened a stout ring, and on this, by means of hooks, weights should be suspended. As the weights are added, the man should caress the sufferer till sufficient counterpoise be attached to take the principal bearing from the feet without offering much obstacle to the breathing.

With regard to the shoes, we should first soften the hoof by allowing the feet to soak in warm water in which a portion of any alkali has been dissolved. The slings being applied, the fore feet are to be placed in a trough of hot, soft water, and allowed to remain there till the hoof is quite pulpy. Then one foot is to be gently raised and the trough partially removed. All this must be done very quietly--not a word being spoken--and all operation suspended at the appearance of the smallest alarm. The man at the head must not for an instant quit his post.

The foot being released from the water, a sharp-pointed knife is to be employed and the horn cut, so as to free every nail, till the shoe drops off; but the iron should not be allowed to clatter on the ground.

THE MANNER IN WHICH THE NAILS, WHICH FASTEN ON THE SHOE, ARE TO BE
RELEASED FROM THE HORSE'S HOOF DURING ACUTE LAMINITIS.
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This method is infinitely better than the common practice of taking off the horse's shoe. The smith removes the shoe by a wrench, using his pliers for the purpose of gaining extra power. No doubt the metal had much better remain on than be thus rudely displaced. But, in removing the shoe from a softened foot, no smith is necessary, and no smith should be employed: the veterinary surgeon should himself cut out the nails; and no matter if an hour or two be occupied over each foot. In laminitis there must be no hurry.

Before the shoes are removed, half a drachm of belladonna and fifteen grains of digitalis should be placed in the horse's mouth. Both drugs should be gently introduced, not as a draught or a ball, but in substance, or in the smallest possible bulk. These medicines should be repeated every half hour, till the breathing is easier and the pulse somewhat altered in character. Then some additional weight may be added to the slings; and, by taking advantage of similar opportunities, the animal may be eventually lifted almost off the ground without displaying any inclination to resist.

THE SYRINGE TO BE EMPLOYED TO INJECT BLOOD-WARM WATER INTO THE VEINS
DURING ACUTE LAMINITIS. THE MARK ON THE ROD DENOTES HOW FAR THE
HANDLE IS TO BE PUSHED DOWN. (See _Enteritis_, p. 170.)
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When the horse is in this position, open the jugular vein with a lancet, making the least possible flurry. Abstract one quart of blood, which may be obtained with the greatest ease. Have ready a quart syringe filled with water; inject one pint into the orifice whence two pints of blood have been abstracted. The effect will be produced in a few minutes. Copious purgation and perspiration will ensue, and the fever will be greatly abated. Clothe the horse well up. Place before him a pail of thin gruel with a bundle of green-meat, and enough has been done for one day. But mind and leave two men to watch in the stable throughout the first three nights.

On the following morning give a dose of ether and laudanum--two ounces of both in a pint of water. Let the horse take his own time in swallowing: do not care if half the drink should be lost. In fact, if the attempt to give the physic should call forth much opposition, abstain from administering it: quiet is of more importance than medicine. On that account, strict orders should be given to admit no visitors, and the strictest injunction concerning silence should be enforced.

The pulse and breathing must be watched; and, as either appear to augment, the drugs before recommended must be introduced. Should the artery on either side of the pastern throb, that sign indicates the foot to be congested. This condition must be relieved. With a lancet open both pastern veins, which are sure to be in a swollen state, and plunge the foot up to the fetlock in warm water. A little blood abstracted by this method does more good than the ample venesections so generally advised, but which, from their tendency to lower the system, are apt to prepare the way for the worst terminations to acute laminitis. Our object should be to conquer the disease without reducing the strength; had the horse ten times its natural vigor, such an affliction as acute laminitis would more than exhaust it all. The failure of former practitioners has been chiefly owing to their inattention to this fact.

While the affection lasts, these measures must be pertinaciously adopted; the feet, the entire time, must be repeatedly put in warm water, not only to soften the horn, but because the chief pain is caused by the congested or swollen condition of the secretive portion of the foot; congestion, likewise, induces the terminations to be most feared; heat or warmth is perhaps the best means of relieving loaded vessels. Cover over the water or blind the horse's eyes while in the slings, because acute disease is likely to disorder the vision, and a sick, imprisoned animal is too apt to be startled by the reflection of its own image. The author has had reason to lament the neglect of such necessary precaution.

The termination to be feared is disorganization--either from the casting of the hoof or the descent of the coffin-bone from its natural situation. The first result is preceded by chronic suppuration. A slight division is observed between hair and horn; and from the opening thus occasioned a small quantity of unhealthy pus issues, mingled with much bloody serum. Ultimately the entire hoof loosens and drops off, exposing the fleshy parts beneath. Now, all these fleshy parts must have been diseased before they could have separated from their secretion, and such fleshy parts are not the laminæ only, but all those represented in the engravings on page 373.

The sudden exposure of parts which, during health, are covered and protected, cannot otherwise than cause an extraordinary effect upon the body of the sufferer. Persons who have lost a nail seldom have that substance renewed in all its original integrity. Deformity or an imperfect secretion is generally retained to mark the deprivation. Nature appears averse to the restoration of any of her original structures.

Such a catastrophe is denominated sloughing of the hoof. After that has occurred it is useless to prolong the suffering by permitting the horse to live. Doubtless in time a sort of new hoof would be produced, but it would only be a deformity. It would want the toughness and strength of the original formation.

The new horny covering which invests the foot of the horse after
sloughing of the hoof, as a termination to acute laminitis.
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Such was the hoof which used to succeed sloughing under the old plan of treatment; the author is happy to state he has not witnessed such a misfortune since he has followed the practice which he here recommends.