SUB-ACUTE LAMINITIS. 423 



of depressing the system to no good purpose, and the advantage of 

 bearing frequent repetition. Blood may be taken in moderate quan- 

 tities from the plat veins ; though it would be better to draw it 

 more directly from the foot or feet. My practice consists in 

 inseiting fi^og-setons, the same as I would for acute laminitis; and 

 not, until this has been done, determining on the further abstraction 

 of blood from the foot. For sometimes, as I said on a former 

 occasion, considerable hemorrhage follows this operation, and then 

 further blood-letting, for a time at least, is not required. But should 

 no amount of blood escape from the setons, one or both, in the foot 

 which has not bled much I open the artery at the toe : the pastern 

 veins affording too small an issue in general to invite having re- 

 course to them. These topical abstractions should be persevered 

 in every second or third day, according to the requirements of the 

 case. And warm poultices applied upon the feet, of the same 

 description as has been already recommended, in order to produce 

 and encourage suppuration in the setons. Nor must we neglect to 

 give a strong purge; which here, as in the acute, ought to be 

 administered on the first commencement of the treatment. I do 

 not approve at this early stage of blistering the coronets ; though 

 at a later period, blisters applied to the pasterns, including the 

 fetlocks as well, often prove of signal service. 



As soon as suppurative action is established in the setons, and 

 they have continued for a couple of weeks or so to run freely, and 

 the horse appears amending, we may withdraw them, and sub- 

 stitute cold and bracing applications for the poultices. Covering 

 the hoofs with padded swabs, or compelling the horse to stand for 

 some three or four hours daily in a bed of wet clay, made in a 

 spare stall for him, will be found very beneficial, so long as there 

 is any heat remaining in the feet. So soon, however, as he begins 

 to step without evincing much tenderness, the best practice is at 

 once to put broad-web shoes upon his feet, and cover the soles 

 either with leather or gutta percha, interposing between that and 

 the sole the common foot-stopping plastered upon tow, as is more 

 particularly described in the treatment recommended for pumice 

 feet. 



