276 Founder and Diseases of Horses^ Feet [June, 



injuries to horses daily seen on Broadway. The Euss pavement is very 

 smooth, but still sound horses, in proper shoes, will never fall on it in 

 the manner now daily done by hundreds. These allusions to the hoofs 

 and shoes lead to a reference to the editor's objection to hoof-ointments. 

 The judicious use of an eligible kind of an ointment for hoofs, the writer 

 contends, is serviceable. The best is, perhaps, equal parts of tar and 

 tallow, melted together, and kept for use in a jar. A thin brushing of 

 this over the soles, bars, frogs, and walls, once a week, and for strong 

 feet twice a week, is recommended. On the other days, the fore-feet 

 should be stopped with pads of tow. kept moist, and a spongeful of 

 water should be frequently squeezed over the hoofs. When a horse is to 

 be taken to be re-shod, the tar dressing should be invariably applied 

 over night, and the shoeing smith can then use his drawing-knife in a 

 proper manner, and prepare the hoofs for the shoes as this ought to be 

 done ; that is, if this operative, who has so much to do with the best 

 value and utility of every horse at work, be in possession of the right 

 knowledge and skill, but which is indeed a rare event. 



] now speak of Founder. It is necessary first to ascertain what may 

 be meant by a term, which is truly an absurd one, derived from the 

 horse-doctoring school. Some speak of chest-founder, and some of two 

 kinds of foot-founder. The former idea is the product of ignorance, 

 which assumes an effect for a cause. The shrunken state of the pectoral 

 muscles, the wiry shoulders, and contracted cavity of the front of the 

 thorax or chest, which are supposed to constitute the disease, are all, 

 and in every case, effects of long protracted pain in the fore-feet — 

 chronic foot-lameness. A horse suffering from this so universal curse 

 of stabling, and shoeing, to-wit, contraction, coffin-joint-lameness, navic- 

 ular-joint-disease, etc., ceases to go free in his action, and bend his 

 knees ; does not exert his muscular forces, or give them their full and 

 rounded play ; and goes near, or toeing the ground, and short in gait 

 in every way. He may not drop at all in his step, unless the feeling is 

 only in one foot, and which is not usually the case ; and, hence, does 

 not seem lame to the unpractised eye. The consequence of this is, in 

 not a few cases, that the unexerted muscles, outside and inside the 

 shoulders, fall away ; the circulation through the lungs being decreased, 

 the expansion of these organs becomes proportionately diminished, and 

 the chest, at the brisket, falls in ; and, in time, the fore-quarters alto- 

 gether acquire that wasted look to which the sapient term " chest-foun- 

 der" has been applied. In this country it is called "Sweeney," an 

 Irish piece of euphony. 



By some, again, the contracted hoof and attendant chronic foot-lame- 



