452 



TREATMENT OF CANKER. 



time — supposing the foot to be in a state to admit of it — enables 

 the horse to perform more or less work. For canker-footed 

 horses, especially of the heavy or agricultural class, are much 

 better kept at work than remaining at rest : they maintain better 

 health, and from this cause, as well as from the motion and 

 pressure given to the foot by exercise, it is found that their cure 

 proceeds with more rapidity and certainty : added to which, the 

 shoe enables the practitioner to confine his dressings to the foot, 

 and make the requisite compression with very little comparative 

 trouble. Sometimes a plain shoe, sometimes a three-quartered 

 shoe, sometimes a bar-shoe, is the one best suited for the case. 

 But a shoe which possesses peculiar advantages in canker is 

 what is called the hox-shoe ; since it not only serves for pro- 

 tection, but is a great defence against injury and dirt and wet, 

 during the time the horse is at work. And of box-shoes, I know 

 of no better description than those recommended by Mr. Wells, 

 V.S., of Norwich, woodcuts of which are subjoined*. 



* See The Veterinarian for April 1851, p. 196. 



