SEEDY TOE. 495 



had a case of seedy toe in the hind feet;" and I may add weight 

 to this fact, by saying that, taking the last fourteen years of my 

 servitude in the First Life Guards — during which period I find I 

 have registered sixteen cases of the disease, viz. nine within the 

 last seven years, and seven within the former like period — I do 

 not remember to have seen a single one in the hind foot. Here, 

 then, we have presented to us two attractive facts for our con- 

 sideration : one is, the all but total absence of the disease in the 

 hind feet of horses of the light or ordinary description ; while 

 in heavy draft or dray horses it occurs as often — Mr. Braby 

 calculates '^ oftener " — in the hind than in the fore feet. Added 

 to which is to be taken into account, the practice of clipping the 

 fore shoes of the former at the toe, but not the hind ; while cart 

 and dray horses wear clips to the toes of both their fore and 

 hind shoes. Coupling this with the facts above stated, it is 

 impossible to refrain from the inference, that some relationship 

 would appear to be established between the seedy toe and the 

 toe-clip. 



Pathology. — At first aspect, hardly any morbid phenomenon 

 assumes a simpler form, or seems readier to admit of explana- 

 tion, than seedy toe ; and, yet, no sooner is the subject broached 

 than opinions fall in upon us hardly any two of which are in 

 all respects concordant. 



Were the disease an attendant or a sequel of laminitis, or of 

 any kind of inflammatory or other affection of the laminae, the 

 fore foot would be more subject to it, certainly, than the hind; 

 but it would not uniformly break out at one spot, and that spot the 

 bottom (not either the top or the middle) of the toe. Animal- 

 culse I have searched for in vain. Hot shoeing has, manifestly, 

 nothing to do with it ; since, if it had, one hoof, and any part of 

 that hoof, would be as liable to it as another. For the same 

 reason, it cannot be said to owe its origin to pressure or 

 squeezing from the nails, or to hurt of any kind. Neither 

 have I ever noticed malformation of the foot of any description. 



It may be easy in this way to state objections to the various 

 theoretical notions of the day — since such may be so called as 

 observation confirmed by practice does not place its seal upon — 



