— 329— 



say once a week for tliree weeks, of the ointment of iodine. (See 

 Prescriptions and Medicines.) 



Fractures of the simple kind take phice in various parts of the 

 body, and when such is the case, and they do not interfere with 

 any action or function of the body, they can be assisted only in so 

 far as bandage and splint are concerned, so as to secure the ends 

 in proper position. Tliis will require some ingenuity, and cannot 

 be described, as a bone is not always broken at one place, nor is it 

 always of one set kind of break. The means will on these occa- 

 sions have to meet the ends required of them in the best way 

 possible. Sometimes pieces of broken bone will have to be taken 

 out, where the bone has become detached. If this occur in the 

 bones of the leg, of course the horse had better be shot. Where 

 small pieces of bone become loose, it is usually in some of the flat 

 bones, as the shoulder blade and the lower jaw bone, from kicks 

 from other horses. 



Fractures of the teeth take place often, and where they are very 

 loose in the head, they had better be taken out altogether, and rasp 

 the sharp points of the broken ones with a file or rasp, to prevent 

 cutting the mouth when the horse is chewing. 



Fungi as a Cause of Disease. — Much has been said and writ- 

 ten of late years of minute fungi being the cause of diseases. Dr. 

 Lessaure has made experiments with pencellum, etc., and con- 

 cludes from them that fungus is not a cause, but an accidental 

 presence. In contradiction of Hallier, and I might truthfully say 

 of many other persons, it has been shown that nothing is to be 

 gained in the study of the causes of disease by cultivating micro- 

 scopic fungi, and it cannot be regarded as a contagious element 

 until we have succeeded in producing disease from art. 



Frost Bites. — The results of frost bites may be called chill- 

 blains, which again give rise to extreme swellings of the heels and 

 back part of the hind legs, until finally the skin gives way, termi- 

 nating in sores and ulcers that may at once be taken for scratches. 

 The sores are deeper in such cases than in scratches or greasy legs, 

 but closely resemble Phagadena (which see). In the worst cases 

 we have seen, the skin and flesh sloughed, followed by gangrene 

 or mortification of the leg, and death of the horse from the poison 

 thus produced and absorbed. We have seen several cases of frost 



