siz AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
tissues of the sensitive frog. It exists in feet that have been allowed 
to stand in damp, ill-cleaned stalls, where they are continually covered 
with wet manure. Running in a wet yard predisposes to it. Gamgee 
describes thrush as “a diseased condition of the villous membrane cover- 
ing the frog,” and says that it is, in its usual form, produced by filth and 
neglect. 
The true seat of the disease is, we believe, in the superficial and less 
fibrous tissues of the sensitive frog. Itis doubtful if true inflammation 
is present. Pain is usually present in inflamed tissues, and thrush is to 
a remarkable degree a painless disease. One of the properties of the 
sensitive frog is to secrete the tissue that becomes the horny frog. 
Now if, by reason of local or constitutional debility, the secretive action 
of the part is imperfect; if the secreted matter, lacking vitality, instead 
of producing horn breaks down _. pus, or pus mingled with half- 
formed and decomposing horn; we shoul 1d get just the condition we 
have in thrush. 
in the healthy frog the cleft is so perfectly covered over by an arch 
of horn that fluid could escape only through an artificial opening; but 
in this diseased condition, the horn is both in so imperfect a state from 
defect in its original secretion, and so disintegrated by the direct 
influence upon it of the dise eased secretion, that the offensive pus escapes 
freely irom it. 
It has been claimed that contracted feet, and too great and long-con- 
tinued paring of the frog, are the main causes of this disease. They 
undoubtedly predispose to it, as they contribute, by change of the form 
of the foot, to affect a change in the nutrition of the organ. But thrush 
is seen, perhaps, in a well-spread, open foot as frequently as in a con- 
tracted one. Constitutional condition has much to do with the local 
manifestation. An animal poorly nourished and cared for, other things 
being equal, will be more likely to exhibit the disease. 
Any treatment that loses sight of the constitutional condition wiil. 
fail to do its best work. First of all, the horse should be placed in a 
stall having a dry floor, or on a short and dry sward, covering @ warm 
sandy soil. Then he should have thoroughly nutritious diet, and, if the 
disease has been of long standing, aiterative and tonic medicines may 
be given. Red bark, sulphuret of antimony, and niter, in the propor- 
tion of two parts of the first to one part each of the last two; or a ball, 
consisting of a quarter of a grain of strychnine, half a drachm of iodide 
of iron, half a scruple of extract of belladonna, and extract of gentian 
and powdered quassia sufficient to make it, may be given night and 
morning. The foot should be put into a path of warm water and 
thorough! bly cleansed; all dust and pus should be carefully removed from 
the commissures, and the part dried by the use of dry tow. Then into 
the crevices should be poured, once a day, a little of a solution of the 
chloride of zine, (three grains to the ounce of water). The foot is to be 
kept shed with calkins, so that afree space may be left under the foot for 
the circulation of the air. Cases will yield more readily to simply con- 
stitutional than to simply local treatment. A judicious combination 
of the two will have the happiest results. 
The condition of thrush neglected may pass into that of canker. Canker 
of the foot joo be an original disease in low-bred, ill-conditioned horses, 
exposed in wet or filthy stables or yards, and poorly cared for. It more 
frequently, however, follows thrush which has been neglected. It com- 
mences in the same ‘tissues, rapidly extending frem the frog to the sole 
and the laminated structures. The disease consists in destructive in- 
flammation, with ulceration, which destroys the connection between the 
