402 OSSIFICATION OF THE CARTILAGES. 



bruises and treads on the coronet, to which from their awkwardness and weight 

 they are so liable, and the greasy heels which a very slight degree of neg- 

 ligence will produce in them, and the stopping of the thrushes, which are so 

 apt in them to run on to the separation of the horn from the sensible frog, will 

 most materially lessen the number of cankered feet. Where this disease often 

 occurs, the owner of the team may be well assured that there is gross misma- 

 nagement either in himself or his horsekeeper, or the smith, or the surgeon, 

 and it will rarely be a difficult matter to detect the precise nature of that mis- 

 management. 



The cure of canker is the business of the veterinary surgeon, and a most 

 painful and tedious business it is. The principles on which he proceeds are, first 

 of all, to remove the extraneous fungous growth, and for this purpose he will 

 need the aid of the knife and the caustic, or the cautery, for he should cut away 

 every portion of horn which is in the slightest degree separated from the sensible 

 parts beneath. He will have to discourage the growth of fresh fungus, and to 

 bring the foot into that state in which it will again secrete healthy horn. 

 Here he will remember that he has to do with the surface of the foot ; that this 

 is a disease of the surface only, and that there will be no necessity for those 

 deeply-corroding and torturing caustics which penetrate to the very bone. A 

 slight and daily application of the chloride of antimony, and that not where the 

 new horn is forming, but on the surface which continues to be diseased, and 

 accompanied by as firm but equal pressure as can be made the careful avoid- 

 ance of the slightest degree of moisture the horse being exercised or worked 

 in the mill, or wherever the foot will not be exposed to wet, and that exercise 

 adopted as early as possible, and even from the beginning if the malady is con- 

 fined to the sole and frog these means will succeed if the disease is capable of 

 cure. Humanity, perhaps, will dictate, that, considering the long process of 

 cure in a cankered foot, and the daily torture of the caustic, and the suffering 

 which would otherwise result from so large or exposed a surface, the nerves of 

 the leg should be divided in order to take away the sense of pain ; but then, 

 especial care must be taken that the horse is placed in such a situation, and 

 exposed to such work, that, being insensible to pain, he may not injuriously 

 batter and bruise the diseased parts. 



Medicine is not of much avail in the cure of canker. It is a mere local 

 disease ; or the only cause of fear is, that so great a determination of blood to 

 the extremities having existed during the long progress of cure, it may in 

 some degree continue, and produce injury in another form. Grease has occa- 

 sionally followed canker. They have been known to alternate. It may, there- 

 fore, be prudent, when the cure of a cankered foot is nearly effected, to subject 

 the horse to a course of alteratives or diuretics. 



OSSIFICATION OF THE CARTILAGES. 



Mention has been made of the side cartilages of the foot, occupying (see 

 cut, page 350) a considerable portion of the external side and back part of 

 the foot. They are designed to preserve the expansion of the upper part of the 

 foot, and especially when that of the lower part is limited or destroyed by care- 

 less shoeing. These cartilages are subject to inflammation, and the result of 

 that inflammation is, that the cartilages are absorbed, and bone substituted in 

 their stead. This ossification of the cartilages frequently accompanies ringbone, 

 but it may exist without any affection of the pastern joint. It is oftenest found 

 in horses of heav}*- draught. Tt arises not so much from concussion, as from 

 sprain, for the pace of the horse Is slow. The cause, indeed, is not well under- 

 stood, but of the effect there are too numerous instances. Very few heavy 

 draught horses arrive at old age without this change of structure ; and particu- 



