496 SEEDY TOE. 



but it is a difficult, if not in the present state of our knowledge an 

 impossible, matter to render any thing like a pathological expla- 

 nation which shall have for its basis the acknowledged facts by 

 which seedy toe is surrounded. I cannot divest my own mind 

 of the connexion there seems to subsist between the toe-clip 

 and the disease ; and in the absence of facts of a contrary tend- 

 ency, and of a more convincive character than any I have yet 

 heard, I must declare that seedy toe, in my opinion, has its 

 origin in pressure, and that the toe-clip, in the generality of 

 cases, appears to be the agent of such pressure. I do not 

 mean to assert that a toe-clip will produce seedy toe in any but 

 a hoof — from its dry, fragile, crumbly or seedy udiinxe^predis- 

 posed to such detriment from wear or pressure ; else would thou- 

 sands of horses have seedy toe in lieu of the few who contract 

 the disease. I had a horse of my own who, before he came into 

 my possession, was continually having sandcracks, and at length 

 had seedy toe, produced, I believe, by the clip operating on a 

 dry, cracky, crumbly hoof. In the 24th vol. of the VETERI- 

 NARIAN, p. 687, will be found a communication from Mr. Brown, 

 V.S., Whitefriars, London, whose opinion on the subject — and 

 it is ?i practical one — is quite in concordance with my own. 

 He says, " It arises from pressure of the sole (junction of sole 

 with walll) of the foot against the shoe;" that farriers, in 

 drawing out a clip, are apt to *' leave a bulge on the under 

 side," which by pressing against the sole of the foot, while the 

 clip in front of the shoe is not allowing the toe of the crust to 

 yield," produces seedy toe. Does not, however, the cutting out of 

 a place for the clip, and the burning practised in seating the 

 shoe, in a measure counteract this? 



But, supposing we should have hit upon the mysterious 

 cause, how are we to account for the spread of the disease in a 

 direct line upwards, towards the coronet, the margin of which 

 it sometimes reaches, and how — still more difficult to explicate 

 for the lateral spread it sometimes takes'? The only ex- 

 planation I am capable of rendering is the following : — Know- 

 ing, as we do, that the hoof is a fibrous tissue, and that its 

 fibres are tubular, and contain within their canals more or less 



