DISEASES. 635 



mg bath — ordinary cold water, to which often is added acetate of 

 lead, sulphate of iron, or common salt, very beneficially. Poultices, 

 cold preferable to hot, give excellent results. By this treatment, 

 the progress of the inflammation is checked, and very often deep and 

 serious wounds, even those where the tendinous sheath has been 

 injured, are easily cured. If the lameness gradually diminishes, 

 the case rapidly gets well ; at any rate, by this treatment, the inflam- 

 matory process is diminished, and the painful pressure of the hard- 

 ened and thick hoof is avoided. 



In the winter, when cold baths are of difficult application, 

 chloroformed or carbolized compresses may be applied round the 

 foot. The hoof is thus softened and the pain reduced. At other 

 times a blister is aj)plied round the coronet. 



If the lameness remains, or seems to increase, it is due to ten- 

 dinous necrosis or caries, and it becomes necessary to operate. 

 Must the surgeon then have recourse to an operation, and make a 

 simple wound with his sharp instrument ? Or, is it still better to 

 merely depend on natural resources, and assist them ? 



It is difficult to lay down any special rules. If the disease is 

 old, if the necrosis has progressed and is. still increasing, a serious 

 'operation becomes necessary. If the necrosis is recent, one must 

 be guided by external indications. Notwithstanding (Renault 

 remarks) one should not be too hasty, as the animal must neces- 

 sarily be laid up for several months afterward. It is often suffi- 

 cient, in a recently punctured wound, in order to avoid complica- 

 tions, to modify the conditions of the fibrous tissues in the whole 

 extent of the lesion, by applying substances simply antiseptic, or 

 still better, slightly caustic. Rey employs the cold bath, in which 

 he dissolves a pound of sulphate of coj)per for ten or fifteen 

 quarts of water ; by this means he has secured the speedy recovery 

 of severe punctiu-ed wounds. For a long time, and with the same 

 object, we have been using a mixture of equal j)arts of sulphate 

 of coj)per and sulphate of u'on, having first hollowed the foot 

 downward around the source of the puncture, and the sole being 

 pared down as thin as could be borne. 



H. Bouley prefers the application of pulverized corrosive sub- 

 limate ; after tracing the wound to its bottom, he fills it well with 

 the powder. This remedy was already recommended by Solleysel, 

 who used it in caries of the os pedis. Other practitioners prefer 

 phenic acid, and claim for it great advantages. By the action of 



