470 CONTRACTION. 



shoes, and to order that he stand with his contracted feet in cold 

 water — or, what is better, in a bed of clay — for a couple of 

 hours once or twice a-day, he being allowed to lie down as 

 usual at night. By such a simple plan of treatment as this will 

 his hoofs, give sufficiency of time for Nature to carry out her 

 operations, become restored to their pristine condition. 



Coleman's Treatment. — So much attention as the late Pro- 

 fessor Coleman bestowed upon the foot of the horse, and so much 

 experience as he had on contracted feet in particular, it would 

 ill become us, on the present occasion, to be silent on what he has 

 said on this part of our subject. " There are various modes" — 

 I quote from his * Lectures' — '' by which contracted feet, in pro- 

 cess of time, may be brought back to their original form, unless 

 there happens to be a diseased frog. I do not mean to assert 

 that the heels cannot be forced out by any other means than the 

 frog ; but I mean to say that this is the only means of effecting it 

 without the aid of mechanical force. Perhaps there is no better 

 mode than this of exhibiting the functions of the frog ; for you 

 find by giving it pressure you expand the quarters, since 

 thereby you not only broaden the frog itself, but you at the same 

 time give the new-formed horn an inclination to grow outwards. 

 The expansion of the hoof is accomplished by the pressure up- 

 wards of the frog and the» pressure downwards of the navicular 

 bone. Seeing, then, that the frog, if pressed upon, will restore 

 parts to a state of expansion which are contracted, it is con- 

 clusive to my mind that it performs the function we ascribe to it. 

 The hoof I hold in my hand was once very much contracted, 

 but the horse was turned out*, and it became expanded again. 

 By rasping the horn (at the heels and quarters), thinning the 

 sole, and lowering the heels, and giving pressure to the frog, you 

 expand the cartilages which project above the hoof, and thus 

 force out the horn which thereabouts is as thin as paper, this 

 thinning of the hoof increasing the power of the cartilages. And 

 the operation is aided by the application of moisture to the hoof, 

 which may be done by tying the horse up in a pond all day." 



* Probably without shoes ; or, may be, shod in tips. 



