TREATMENT AFTER WORK. 273 
the skin and cellular membrane beneath it at the expense of the joints, 
and I have never seen them of much service. Nothing, I believe, is so 
valuable in all blows received in the hunting field as hot fomentation, but 
it should be thoroughly carried out, and not done by halves, as it too often 
is by careless grooms. It no doubt has a tendency to increase the swelling 
tor a time, but in doing this the blood is drawn to the surface, and internal 
mischief is often prevented. I have had young horses come home with 
their knees and shins terribly bruised over timber and stone walls, but 
though the fomentation with hot water has enlarged the knees to a frightful 
size, there has been no lameness on the next day; and the swelling has 
gradually disappeared, leaving the joints as free as ever at the expiration 
of forty-eight hours. On the other hand, I have tried cold wet bandages 
for similar injuries, but I have invariably found that they gave present 
relief to a slight extent, but left the limbs stiff and rheumatic often for 
the next two or three weeks. The addition of a little tincture of arnica 
to the water for fomentation is a great improvement when it is at hand, 
and I should always advise the hunting groom to keep a stock of it by him 
during the season. A wineglassful is enough for half a bucket of hot water. 
THORNS are most troublesome to the groom, and it is often a question of 
great doubt whether to persevere in the endeavour to remove them, or to 
leave them alone until they clearly manifest themselves by the inflamma 
tion they produce. “When the hunter comes home, his legs should ke 
carefully examined while they are wet (that is to say, if his exhausted 
condition does not forbid the loss of time); and if the hand clearly detects 
any projection, search should at once be made with a view to the removal 
of the foreign body. Usually, however, the thorn has buried itself, and 
it is only when it has produced some considerable degree of inflammation 
that attention is drawn to the spot. When lameness is shown in any of the 
limbs on coming home from hunting, the groom always is inclined to suspect 
a thorn as the cause of mischief, and I have known the penknife used in 
half-a-dozen different places to cut down upon what was supposed to be a 
buried thorn, which was never discovered, for the plain reason that no 
such matter was present in the leg. 
OVERREACHES must be dried up as quickly as possible, and should not 
be treated like common wounds, for the reason that the horny substance of 
the foot, when it becomes softened and decomposed by the matter flowing 
from a wound near it, acts like a poison upon the ulcerated surface. It is 
better, therefore, to apply a little friar’s balsam, or some other astringent, 
such as sugar of lead, rather than to use wet bandages or bran poultices 
which I have sometimes known to be applied. 
SIMPLE AS WELL AS CONTUSED CUTS are far better treated in the horse 
with hot fomentations than by any attempt to heal them at once. Unless 
they are very extensive or deep, the only point in which they are to be 
regarded is with reference to the blemish which they may leave. Some- 
times the edges gape so wide, that a stitch or two must be inserted, but in 
such a case it is better to entrust the operation to a competent veterinary 
surgeon. 
SUMMERING. 
Untin Mr. Apperwey first drew attention to this subject, forty years 
ago, at which period those horses which were not required to work through 
the summer, were invariably turned out to grass, hunters, as a regular 
rule, were stripped of their clothing in April, and sent to grass on or 
about the first of May, that is, as soon as the first young blades showed 
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