338 REPORT ON THE DISEASES OF FARM HORSES. 



having lost a shoe, and travelling some distance, or the integrity 

 of the foot perverted by the too frequent use of the knife and 

 rasp. 



The foot of the horse is composed of a box or hoof, in which 

 is a closely fitting series of tissues, of the most exquisitely sensi- 

 tive character. These describe a shape exactly similar, but 

 smaller of course than the outside, therefore we shall see that 

 the hoof acts the part of a shell of uniform thickness around the 

 whole, sometimes not exceeding three-eighths of an inch in some 

 horses, whilst in the largest animals it will not exceed four or 

 five-eighths. To this shell the shoes are attached by nails, the 

 latter being driven in a perpendicular direction up the sides, so 

 as to emerge about one and a-half inches or more above the 

 shoe, and form a clench for tightening the whole. In driving 

 nails, sometimes the sensitive portion within is either injured or 

 included by the nail, which is called a prick or puncture ; whilst 

 at others, the nail either being too thick, or driven too near, or 

 both, the sensitive parts are severely pressed, and in all cases 

 the results are inflammation, pain, and lameness. Cold weather 

 retards the process considerably, from which the animal is 

 allowed to proceed without attention, and, as in all the other 

 cases of injury described as occurring to the feet, the matter, 

 formed by the process of suppuration, by augmentation finds its 

 way out at the top of the hoof, or probably has burrowed 

 throughout the extent of the solar surface. 



Suppuration arises in the foot from other injuries, such as 

 picking up a nail, the point of which has entered the hoof and 

 sensitive structures ; bruises from cart wheels, treads from other 

 horses, stepping on the teeth of an upturned harrow, injuries 

 by stable forks, &c, &c, all of which are likely, by inattention 

 and mismanagement, to become complicated, and not only end 

 in the destruction of the hoof and other tissues, but also the 

 horse himself. 



Treatment — In all cases of lameness the foot should invariably 

 be examined. If pain is not too severe to admit of the animal 

 standing on the affected limb, raise the opposite foot from the 

 ground, and have it held by an assistant while the affected 

 member is tapped on the outside with a hammer, over the region 

 of the nails, when, if the injury is there, he will quickly flinch. 

 If lameness is but slight, removal of the offending nail will 

 probably be all that is required. It is a decided error to pare 

 away the hoof and explore the foot in such cases. Such a pro- 

 ceeding is not surgery or treatment, but maltreatment, and the 

 result of confirmed ignorance on the part of the operator. 



Extensive inflammation cannot go on in the foot without 

 evincing various and rapidly increasing lameness, except, as I 

 I have stated, in severely cold weather, when the process will 



