596 WOUNDS OF THE FOOT. 



treads ; after which, and in all slight cases, the bandage, as 

 already recommended, may be relied on. In bad treads 

 we sometimes find that fourteen days elapse before the 

 wound is clean, and all the slough cast off, which, when 

 effected, the cure is soon completed, by continuing cold- 

 water dressing with moderate bandage pressure, until sup- 

 puration ceases, when all coverings may be removed. Irri- 

 tants should be avoided, though some touches with caustic 

 may be called for in the latter stage. The best in the case 

 we find to be crystalised sulphate of copper, which, from its 

 manageable form and slow solubility, can be applied to the 

 precise spot where granulations are loose and sprouting. 



WOUNDS OF THE FOOT BY NAILS AND OTHER SHARP-POINTED 

 BODIES. 



The most frequently occurring injuries from these causes 

 are inflicted by the nails in shoeing ; the cases of lameness 

 from which are more numerous than is generally known, 

 even by shoers themselves. 



It is not the palpable accidents of pricking horses that 

 are of the most frequent occurrence, but the lesser and less 

 obvious effects of proximity of the nails to the organised 

 structures; the hoof being at the same time weakened, 

 pain, more or less acute, results, with a variety of effects 

 depending on other conditions. In all these cases of 

 wounds of the foot, the first thing to be done is to remove 

 the foreign body let all that offends be cleared away, 

 and no exploration, as a rule, is called for, or advisable. 

 Farriers usually do much injury^ by cutting and exploring, 

 without any notion of what they are in search of; the pre- 

 tended remedy is commonly an aggravation of the injury ; 

 the hoof being destroyed and the foot deeply wounded, 



