ACUTE LAMINITIS. 413 



feet. And then the question arises, whether the punctures in- 

 flicted on parts in a state of inflammation to draw blood, do not 

 tend to irritate and aggravate more than the frog-setons ; con- 

 sidering that the one is run through parts away from the imme- 

 diate seat of the inflammation, while the other penetrates the 

 inflamed tissues themselves? Added to which, the wound we 

 inflict at the toe of the foot is itself extremely likely to run into 

 the suppurative action, and so may dispose the laminae to the same 

 process; an event, of all others, most to be guarded against. Mr. 

 Castley, when he was serving in the peninsular campaign, found 

 that, although he could relieve cases of laminitis, in the first 

 instance, by bleeding at the toe, " yet in the warm climate of Por- 

 tugal, I (he says) was liable to lose my patient, afterwards in con- 

 sequence of the wound that I had made in the foot. Sujjpuration 

 ivould be apt to take place in the sole; secondary inflammation 

 would be set up; and this would be followed by tumefaction, 

 burrowing up and bursting all round the coronet ; and then the game 

 was lost. (The consequence being, the casting of the hoof.) I 

 therefore abandoned the foot altogether, and began to bleed higher 

 up." D'Arboval strongly expresses his fears that the toe yields 

 trop peu de sang to directly relieve the sanguiferous sj^stem of the 

 foot : such, however, can only arise from imperfect operation. 



Those who object to stabbing the inflamed tissues may open tlie 

 pastern veins, or, as D'Arboval suggests, in case swelling should 

 oppose this, they may open the superficial coronary artery in front 

 of the coronet. I have often myself had recourse to the plat vein, 

 choosing this vessel in preference to the jugular; and through it 

 have been enabled to make an impression on the foot at the same 

 time that I made an impression on the system, selecting that limb 

 for the operation which appeared in the greatest pain. Sometimes 

 a good deal of blood is drawn by the punctures of the setons, and 

 when such is ihe case there will, of course, be less necessity for 

 seeking for other sources of local blood-letting. Should the coronets 

 be hot and painful, D'Arboval advises that they be freely scarified, 

 the scarifications being made in the direction of the axis of the 

 limb, and the bleeding encouraged as much as possible by immer- 

 sion of the feet in warm water, or in poultices. This I regard as 



