CONTRACTION. 297 



fool to its original shape, and many of them have enjoyed considerable, but 

 sliort-lived reputation. A clip was placed at the inside of each heel of the 

 shoes, which, resting on the bars, was intended to atford an iusurmountabib 

 obstacle to the further wiring in of the foot, wiiile the heels of the shoe 

 were bevelled outward to give the foot a tendency to expand. The foot, 

 however, continued to wire in, until tlie clip was embedded in the horn, and 

 worse lameness was produced. 



A shoe, jointed at the toe, and with a screw adapted to the heels, was 

 contrived, by wliich, when softened by poulticing or immersion in' warm 

 water, the quarters were to be irresistibly widened. They were widened 

 by the daily and cautious use of the screw until the foot seemed to assume 

 its natural form, and the inventor began to exult in having discovered a 

 cure for contraction ; but no sooner was the common shoe again applied, and 

 the horse returned to his work, than the heels began again to narrow, and 

 the foot became as contracted as ever. Common sense would have foretold 

 that such must have been the result of this expansive process; for the heel 

 could have been only thus forced asunder, at the expense of partial or 

 total separation from the interior portions of the foot with which they were 

 in contact. 



The contracted heel can rarely or never permanently expand, for this 

 plain reason, that although we have power over the crust, we cannot make 

 the lengthened and narrowed coffin-bone resume its natural shape, or restore 

 the portion of the frog which has been absorbed. 



If the action of the horse be not materially impaired, it is better to let 

 the contraction alone, be it as great as it will. If the contraction has 

 evidently produced considerable lameness, then the owner of the horse 

 will calculate between his value, if cured, the expense of the cure, and the 

 probability of failure. 



The medical treatment can only be undertaken by a skilful veterinarian, 

 and it will principally consist in getting rid of any inflammation that may 

 then exist, by local bleeding and physic ; next, paring the sole to the utmost 

 extent that it will bear; rasping the quarters as deeply as may be, so that 

 they shall not be too much weakened, or the coronary ring (see h, p. 281) 

 injured ; then rasping deeply likewise at the toe, and perhaps scoring at the 

 toe. The horse is afterwards made to stand during the day in wet clay, 

 placed in one of the stalls of his stable, and he is moved at night into 

 another stall, and his feet bound up thickly in wet cloths; or he is turned 

 out into wet pasturage, with tips, or, if possible, without them, and his feet 

 are frequently pared out, and the quarters lightly rasped. In five or six 

 months the horn will have grown fairly down, when he may be taken up, 

 and shod with shoes, unattached by nails on the inner side of the foot, and 

 put to gentle work. The foot will be found very considerably enlarged, 

 and the owner will, perhaps, think that the cure is accomplished ; and the 

 horse may, possibly, for a time stand very gentle work, and the inner side 

 of the foot being left at liberty, its natural expansive process may be 

 resumed. The internal part of the foot, however, has not healthily filled up 

 with the expansion of the crust. If that expansion has been effected for- 

 ward on the quarters, the crust will no longer be in contact with the 

 lengthened and narrowed heels of the coffin-bone ; there will not be the 

 natural adhesion and strength, and a very slight cause, or even the very 

 habit of contraction, will, in spite of all our care and the freedom of the 

 inner quarter, in very many instances, cause the foot to wire in again us 

 badly as before. 



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