RIXG-BOXE. J 79 



false quarter. Tread, neglected, often causes it, but much 

 oftener the caustics, (burning medicines), used by some farriers 

 and Ignorant pretenders, in treating tread. 



Treatment— The object is to cause the divided coronary 

 substance to unite, or to cause it to throw out healthy horn 

 The split in the quarter must be held together by the same 

 means recommended in sand-crack, or split-hoof. The coronet 

 at the injured part, should be moderately touched with a 

 heated round or flat iron. This will be more likely to cause it 

 to form a perfect wall than any amount of blistering or burn- 

 ing with caustics. After the firing, a poultice of linseed meal 

 may be applied for some days, to heal the burn kindly and 

 keep the parts soft. 



RING-BONE. 



A deposit of bony matter, taking place either on or near the 

 pastern-bone, has received the name of ring-bone. And as 

 very foolish notions prevail with regard to this malady, I shall 

 be somewhat particular in explaining its origin. As has been 

 more than once remarked, all the free surfaces (outsides) of the 

 bones are covered by a thin, whitish, and exceedingly touo-h 

 membrane, called the periosteum. The joints are also firmly 

 bound together by firm bands or straps, called ligaments. JN^ow 

 when the periosteum, or ligaments, about the pastern are ex' 

 posed to the proper causes, a new process, called ossification, 

 (the tormation of bone), commences in them, and as this ex 

 tends the covering of the bone, the ligaments, and even the 

 muscles about the part, are changed into a mass of spono-y 

 bone, which is firmly attached to the pastern-bone, as if a p^/t 



This bony tumor may nearly, or quite, encircle ihe end of the 

 pastern-bone, forming a ring, and hence its name; or it may 

 extend only part of the way around, or appear only as a bony 

 tumor at one side or the other, or on the coronet-bone, under 



