Hi EXPERIMENT. WHITE FEET, LIABLE TO GREASE. 



particles of the blood which may have been sent through the arteries to the 

 part for the propagation of new horn, or the supply of marrow — of the nature 

 whereof the matter partakes. Indeed, I have very little doubt that the mar- 

 row is concerned in the production of grease; for I have successively examinee^ 

 twenty legs which were affected with grease at the time life was extinguished^ 

 and the marrow was invariably confined to the lower part only, as if it were 

 fallen down there for want of vigour, whilst the upper part of the bone was 

 hollow, in every instance : healthy leg bones are always full to the top of each, 

 and I have reason for thinking that this is the case with all debilitated horses. 

 Again, the glutinous substance that pervades the surface of the coffin-bone, 

 and to which I have attributed the formation of new horny matter of the 

 hoof, is always found scanty in greasy-healed subjects. See my observations 

 on the foot in the next chapter. 



One of those legs parted from the knee, having the skin removed, but other- 

 wise untouched, was hung up in the yard whilst the sun was at 70 degrees 

 (July, 1825). in three or four days the grease might be seen to give a colour 

 to the lower part at the fetlock joint, and every day the greasy nature of the 

 colour was evident to touch and smell, whilst the articulation of the large pas- 

 tern and sesamoid bones remained unaffected in either way. Upon breaking 

 the bones nine months afterwards, the marrow had all escaped without a 

 puncture, i. e. through the bone. 



The following ingenious suggestion I find among much voluminous Vete- 

 rinary Memoranda, but whether it be my own, or 1 owe it to some friend, I 

 have no means at hand for ascertaining, nor does my recollection serve me 

 sufficiently to say who. " Horses with one or two white feet are more liable 

 to the grease in the feet that are white than in the others; and if the proposi- 

 tion be true that white feet are weak ones, we come to the same conclusion, 

 that the want of colour having occurred through want of vigour in the part: 

 then weakness and grease have the same cause." 



Symptoms. — First perceptible by a swelling at the heels, mostly of the hind 

 legs. This is occasioned by local inflammation, and is soon followed by a 

 slight issue of greasy m.atter, whence the name ; but it is sometimes more wa- 

 tery, ichorous, and offensive, which will depend principally on the constitu- 

 tional health of the patient. The swelling sometimes extends much higher 

 than the fetlock joint, even towards the hough, and occasions stiffness of th« 

 limb and indisposition to move. He can not lie down, by reason of the un- 

 bending nature of his joints, and therefore stands to sleep, which renders the 

 disorder more virulent by the accession of fresh matter to the part ; the skin 

 cracks at various places, and ulceration ensues. The hair sticks out like furze, 

 the discharge is darker than originally, is thin, acrid, corroding, and stinking. 



Remedy. — The grease is one of those disorders about which we should em- 

 ploy our ingenuity in prevention rather than the cure ; and this indeed is the 

 case with nearly all the diseases that depend upon constitutional defective- 

 ness, or rather inability of some of the organs of life to perforin aright the 

 1 unctions of nature. How these ought to act I have spoken at large in the 

 second chapter of book the first; and pointed out the free circulation of the 

 blood as the principal cause of health, as would also the want of a g"<)d circu- 

 lation prove the harbinger of disease. Now this affair of grease being pro- 

 duced entirely by such inactivity, it seems clear that exercise would be the best 

 preventive of it ; and the horse-keeper should also keep the heels dry after work 

 IS over, and hand-rub him a little with as much industry as he can afford. He 

 should also let the hair remain on the heels of his heavy horses, and give to 

 the large ones sufficient depth of stall and bed, so as to prevent such from 

 throwing their long .egs half way out in the stable (as too often happens) upon 

 kl.c cold floor, of winter nights. 



