VVOUNDii OF THE CUUST AND SOLE. 325 



horse has been shod, will lead to the suspicion that the smith has 

 been in fault ; yet no one who considers the thinness of the crust, 

 and the difficulty of shoeing many feet, will blame him for some- 

 times pricking the animal. His fault will consist in concealing 

 or denying that of which he will almost always be aware at the 

 time of shoeing, from the flinching of the horse, or the dead sound, 

 or the peculiar resistance that may be noticed in the driving of 

 the nail. 



When the seat of mischief is ascertained, the sole should be 

 thinned round it, and at the nail -hole, or the puncture, it should 

 be pared to the quick. The escape of some matter will now 

 probably tell the nature of the injury, and remove its consequen- 

 ces. If it be puncture of the sole effected by some nail, or any 

 similar body, picked up on the road, all that will be necessary is 

 a little to enlarge the opening, and then to place on it a fledget 

 of tow dipped in Friar's balsam, and over that a little common 

 stopping. If there is much heat and lameness, a poultice should 

 be applied. 



A puncture near the centre of the sole is most dangerous, from 

 its liability to wound the flexor tendon where it is inserted in the 

 coffin-bone, from which much action is required ; or it may e vren 

 penetrate the joint between the navicular and coffin-bone. 



If pricked by a nail, the treatment above described will usually 

 soon effect a cure. It may, however, be prudent to keep the loot 

 stopped for a few days. If the accident has been neglected, and 

 matter begins to be formed, and to be pent up, and to press on the 

 neighboring parts, and the horse evidently suffers extreme pain, 

 and is sometimes scarcely able to put his foot to the ground, and 

 much matter is poured out when the opening is enlarged, further 

 precautions must be adopted. The fact must be recollected that 

 the living and dead horn will never unite, and every portion of 

 the horny sole that has separated from the fleshy sole above must 

 be removed. The separation onust be folloived as far as it 

 reaches. Much of the success of the treatment depends on this. 

 No small strip or edge of separated horn must be suffered to press 

 upon any part of the wound. The exposed fleshy sole must then 

 be touched, but not too severely, with the butyr (chloride) of an- 

 timony, some soft and dry tow being spread on the part, the foot 

 stopped, and a poultice placed over all if the foot seems to require 

 it. On the following day a thin pellicle of horn will frequently 

 be founc' over a part or the whole of the wound. This should be, 

 yet very lightly, again touched with the caustic ; but if there is 

 an appearance of fungus sprouting from the exposed surface, the 

 application of the butyr must be more severe, the tow being again 

 placed over it, so as to afford considerable yet uniform pressure. 

 Many days do not often elapse before the new horn covers the 



