CONTRACTION. 387 



Their use in assisting the expansion of the foot has been already stated, and 

 should a disposition to contraction be produced by any other cause, the cutting 

 away of the bars would hasten and aggravate the evil ; but the loss of the bar 

 would not of itself produce contraction. 



The contraction, however, that is connected with permanent lameness, 

 although increased by the circumstances which we have mentioned, usually 

 derives its origin from a different source, and from one that acts violently and 

 suddenly. Inflammation of the little plates covering the coffin-bone is the most 

 usual cause ; and a degree of inflammation not sufficiently intense to be charac- 

 terised as acute founder, but quickly leading to sad results, may and does spring 

 from causes almost unsuspected. There is one fact to which we have alluded, 

 and that cannot be doubted, that contraction is exceedingly rare in the agricul- 

 tural horse, but frequently occurs in the stable of the gentleman and the coach- 

 proprietor. It is rare where the horse is seemingly neglected and badly shod; 

 and frequent where every care is taken of the animal, and the shoes are unex- 

 ceptionable and skilfully applied. Something may depend upon the breed. 

 Blood horses are particularly liable to contraction. Not only is the foot naturally 

 small, but it is disposed to become narrower at the heels. On the other hand, 

 the broad, flat foot of the cart-horse is subject to diseases enough, but contrac- 

 tion is seldom one of the number*. In horses of equal blood not a little seems to 

 depend upon the colour, and the dark chesnut is proverbially prone to con-- 

 traction. 



Whatever is the cause of that rapid contraction or narrowing of the heels 

 which is accompanied by severe lameness, the symptoms may be easily distin- 

 guished. While standing in the stable the horse will point with, or place for- 

 ward, the contracted foot, or, if both feet are affected, he will alternately place 

 one before the other. When he is taken out of the stable, he will not, perhaps, 

 exhibit the decided lameness which characterises sprain of the flexor tendon, or 

 some diseases of the foot : but his step will be peculiarly short and quick, and 

 the feet will be placed gently and tenderly on the ground, or scarcely lifted 

 from it in the walk or the trot. It would seem as if the slightest irregularity 

 of surface would throw the animal down, and so it threatens to do, for he' is 

 constantly tripping and stumbling. If the fore-feet are carefully observed, one 

 or both of them will be narrowed across the quarters and towards the heels. In 

 a few cases the whole of the foot appears to be contracted and shrunk ; but in 

 the majority of instances, while the heels are narrower, the foot is longer. 

 The contraction appears sometimes in both heels : at other times in the inner 

 heel only ; or, if both are affected, the inner one is wired in the most, either 

 from the coronet to the base of the foot, or only or principally at the coronet 

 oftener near the base of the foot but in most cases the hollow being greatest 

 about mid- way between the coronet and the bottom of the foot. This irregu- 

 larity of contraction, and uncertainty as to the place of it, prove that it is some 

 internal disorganization, the seat of which varies with the portion of the attach- 

 ment between the hoof and the foot that was principally strained or injured. 



* A valued correspondeut suggests, l^iat severe, and the frog and the shorter lamina 



the difference between these two kinds towards the heel are the first to suffer, and 



of horses may peihaps throw some light on contraction ensues. We do not find con- 



the subject. The long continued and heavy traction in the hind feet, where there ia 



pressure on the frog in the cart-horse pro- little coutmction, nor ossification, because the 



duces ossification of the cartilages from which pressure is chiefly on the toe. Quick draught 



the blood-horse is free. In the quickness of horses have it both ways, but chiefly in con- 



the action of the blood-horse, the expansion traction. 



of the frog is not sufficiently continued to The reader will form his own opinion on 



produce this effett; but the concussion is this subject. 



G 2 



