TREATMENT OF CANKER. 453 



Now, however, that leather and gutta percha are introduced 

 into the forge, we may, either with a plain bar-shoe or a common 

 shoe, make use of either of them as a cover and protection to the 

 dressing ; though, of course, the durability of such substances 

 has its limit, and they may in consequence turn out, in the end, 

 somewhat expensive. The proper leather for use is the sole 

 leather of shoemakers, which will have to be secured with the 

 nails of the shoe. The gutta percha has the advantage of being 

 capable of being moulded into the sole of the foot, while the shoe 

 is on, by being previously made soft and flexible through immer- 

 sion in water at nearly the boiling heat, and becoming, when cold, 

 hard and firm again, and so proving a substantial protective. In 

 this way the same piece of gutta percha may be used for several 

 times; each time, however, it will be found to have become 

 less affected by heat and cold, and to have shrunk, so that 

 ultimately it turns rotten, and calls for repair or renewal. The 

 box-shoe, in durability, has, of course, the advantage over these 

 contrivances ; but it is heavier for the horse to carry. 



The Principle of Treatment, so far as the separation of 

 the anormal from the normal parts, being fully and satisfactorily 

 carried out, must now be completed by the destruction of the 

 former, and the preservation of the latter from the same diseased 

 action. The drawing-knife laid aside, the shoe best adapted for 

 the foot should now be determined, and be fitted and nailed on. 

 This done, the dressing may be commenced. Fungus present- 

 ing itself in prominent masses may be pared down to a certain 

 extent with the scalpel : though this is a practice I am myself 

 not friendly to, unless the fungous growths be of extraordinary 

 luxuriance, and then great care is required, since the operation 

 is very likely to excite troublesome and by no means salutary 

 hemorrhage. Some practitioners burn down the fungus with a 

 red-hot iron, or cut it off with a sharp firing-iron : this is a 

 practice, however, which for my own part I do not pursue. 

 In cases of the ordinary description, I think the object may be 

 accomplished, and, in fact, is best effected by 



Dressings. — Whereof, for the most effectual and curative I 

 may, in truth, say, the pharmacopeia has been literally ransacked. 



