In the Stable, Field, and on the Road. 103 



days, such torture, butchery, and sacrifice of property, 

 that I tried what I believed then the most rational mode 

 of procedure, and have been rewarded with great success. 

 The few cases of protracted and advanced disease, which 

 after due observation and trial I diagnose as incurable, I 

 advise to be put out of their miserable state." Such is 

 the opinion of Professor Gamgee upon this terrible disease. 

 We have still yet another complaint of the feet of the 

 horse, and though it has but a simple name, yet it is a 

 painful and troublesome disease. I am speaking of 



CORNS, 



And those of my readers who are troubled with them 

 can sympathise with the horse when it is afflicted with 

 corns. This disease in the foot of the horse has acquired 

 a name which but ill expresses its nature. It bears but 

 little affinity to corns of the human foot ; instead of 

 being hard as in the human subject they are thin and 

 very weak, and caused by pressure on the sole at the 

 angle of the bars of the feet, the horn becomes more 

 spongy and soft than at other parts, and it is so sensitive 

 that upon the slightest pressure the horse indicates that 

 he feels pain. When the foot becomes contracted, that 

 portion of the sole intervening between the external crust 

 which is wiring in, and the bars which oppose that con- 

 traction are squeezed very severely, which induces inflam- 

 mation, and hence it is that feet that are contracted 

 are almost alw T ays subjects that are afflicted with corns. 

 The effects of this pressure induce a small quantity of 

 extravasated blood, and the horn being secreted in less 

 quantities and being more spongy it has a tendency to 



