PRICKED, STABBED, OR CUT fcOOT. 225 



The bottom of the foot cannot indeed be exempt from this 

 description of injury, as the usual place for the nail to enter 

 is the commissures ; next to these, the frog, on account of 

 its being a soft body. It rarely happens a nail runs into 

 the sole unless the horse partially casts a shoe and treads 

 upon it : flint and glass, however, often cut through the 

 hoof. 



At the time of the riots in London, triangular sorts of iron crosses, 

 called crows' feet, used to be thrown about the streets for the purpose of 

 stabbing the feet of the cavalry horses, and so crippling them. It be- 

 came necessary, at last, to defend the feet from these dangerous weapons, 

 by an iron sole or plate, riveted to the shoe. 



Nature of the Disease. — The horny case in which the 

 sensitive foot is enveloped, renders these injuries distinct in 

 their pathology from all the others we have considered. 

 Though horn possesses no vitality and cannot inflame, so, 

 when pus collects within the hoof, no absorption can follow : 

 the matter must consequently remain pent up ; and, from 

 not obtaining vent, commences spreading, until it has dif- 

 fused itself between the sensitive foot and the hoof. This 

 is the mischief we are so apprehensive of in accidents to the 

 foot ; however, the free liberation of the pus deposited, con- 

 stitutes the grand secret to cure the excessive lameness which 

 accompanies its secretion. 



Treatment. — A recent case of prick in the foot will re- 

 quire but little of us, though something of the smith. Let 

 the shoe be removed ; the wounding substance instantly 

 extracted ; and let the farrier pare away the pierced horn, and 

 let him thin the contiguous parts of the sole, so that no pres- 

 sure be kept upon the injured surface, which we must regard 

 as the seat of approaching inflammation. We are to have the 

 foot pared so as to give the parts within room to swell; and 

 take care to expose them, that, should matter form, it may 

 at once find egress. Should the wound be a recent prick 

 from shoeing, then follow the nail-hole up for a little way 

 with the searcher f or small drawing knife, so as to enlarge 

 the canal, and leave a free opening below ; and afterwards 



I. 15 



