SEEDY TOE. 497 



medullary matter, from which they derive that property where- 

 by they gain the appellation of living horn, I would say, 

 that pressure operated in bruising and breaking down this 

 tubular structure, and so occasioned, what might be called, mor- 

 tification of the horny fibre ; and that such mortification, once 

 produced, made its way along the canal of the tube, up to the 

 coronet even, and so caused the defalcation, from the decay 

 resulting, we so generally meet with. Why the inner to the 

 exclusion of the outer crust of the wall of the hoof should be 

 so affected, arises, I should say, from the pressure operating 

 more particularly upon the horny fibres of the wall next to the 

 sole, as well as from the circumstance of those (the inner) 

 fibres having canals large enough to contain medullary matters, 

 which is not the case with the more minute or outer fibres. 

 The coating of horn still adherent to the sensitive laminae in 

 seedy toe, forming the inner boundary of the hollow, is not of 

 a tubular but a laminated composition. 



In reference to horses being known to exhibit seedy toe who 

 have never worn shoes, I can only suppose that, under certain 

 circumstances, contusion or pressure of the toe against the 

 ground may have the same effect as the toe-clip is supposed to 

 have. After all, however, it behoves me in honesty to con- 

 fess my inability to offer any very satisfactory explanations 

 of the various phenomena concomitant on seedy toe. 



The Treatment, so far as we can assist nature in her 

 operations, is a simple affair. 



The Shoe must be taken off to enable us to ascertain 

 what progress the disease has made, as well as to admit of 

 the removal of such parts of the damaged hoof as it shall 

 appear requisite or expedient to cut away. With a probe, or 

 even with a common horse-nail, — a common substitute for 

 a probe in the forge — the seedy and hollow parts may be ex- 

 plored. There may be nothing present but abstract seediness 

 of the toe ; or, with the seediness there may be excavation of 

 the wall, and this excavation ipay or may not reach to the 

 coronet. It is our business to probe the length and breadth 

 VOL. IV. 3 s 



