546 THE HORSE. 
variation exists, navicular disease is extremely likely to attack the smaller 
foot, if it is not already there ; and for this reason, horses with such feet 
are generally avoided by the intending purchaser. 
The treatment of navicular disease, as before remarked, is only snecessful 
in the early stage, before either ulceration or adhesion has taken place. 
Tf a horse with strong concave soles suddenly becomes lame, points his 
toe, and shows other signs that his navicular bone is inflamed, he should 
be treated in the usual way suited to inflammation, and at the same time 
liberty should be given to the vascular tissues to expand, by reducing the 
substance of the horn. Bleeding at the toe has the double good effect of 
abstracting blood, and at the same time weakening the sole, so as to allow 
of the expansion which is desired. The operation should, therefore, at 
once be performed ; at the same time, the whole sole may be reduced in 
thickness, and the heels lowered in proportion. The foot should then 
(after the shoe is tacked on) be placed in a cold bran poultice, which will 
soften the horn ; and the system should be reduced by the exhibition of 
the medicines recommended under Laminitis, at page 541. Next day, if 
the pulse continues high, more blood may be taken ; but, in ordinary 
cases, it is better at once to insert a seton in the frog (see OPERATIONS, 
Chap. XX XII.), and trust to this for relieving the chronic inflammation 
remaining, by its counter-irritation. But when the disease itself is mas- 
tered, there is still a good deal to be done to prevent the injurious effects 
which are so apt to follow. The horse contracts a habit of stepping on 
his toes, to prevent hurting his navicular structures ; and hence the frog 
is not used, the heels of the crust and the bars are not strained, and there 
being no stimulus to the soft parts which secrete them, they waste and 
contract in size. If the human hand is allowed to lie idle, the palm and 
the insides of the fingers are covered with a delicate cuticle, which affords 
so poor a protection to the cutis, that, on using it with any kind of hard 
work, it actually separates, and leaves an exposed surface, which speedily 
inflames. But by gradually exposing the same hand to pressure, a thick- 
ened and tougher cuticle is secreted ; and this will bear any moderate 
amount of pressure or friction without injury. Nevertheless, even the 
hand so prepared must be continually stimulated by work, or the skin 
returns to its original delicate state, and is then exposed to the same risk 
of injury as before. So it is with the horse’s foot, even in a state of 
health ; but this is far more marked after an attack of disease. The 
tendency then is to produce the natural horny growths of a smaller sub- 
stance than before ; and if the secreting surfaces are not stimulated by 
pressure, they become doubly idle, and the frog, as well as the adjacent 
parts beneath the navicular bone, shows a wasted and shrivelled appear- 
ance. To avoid the risk of these ill consequences, the horse should be 
placed, for two or three hours daily, on a bed of wet clay, which will allow 
the shoe to sink into it, but will yet be tenacious enough to make firm and 
steady pressure on the frog, while its low temperature will keep down 
inflammation. No plan is of so much service in producing what is called 
expansion of the heels and growth of the frog as this ; not, as is com- 
monly supposed, from the clay mechanically pressing the heels out, but 
from the stimulus of its pressure causing the soft parts to secrete more 
horn, and of a sounder quality than before. 
SHOULD THESE REMEDIES FAIL in restoring the foot affected with navi- 
cular disease to a healthy state, recourse can only be had to the operation 
of neurotomy, which is perfectly efficacious in removing the lameness ; 
and if there is no ulceration, and merely an adhesion of the tendon to the 
