SEEDY TOE. 499 



in an integral condition of which can alone the hoof be rendered 

 solid again, and the horse restored to soundness and to work. 



The Shoe best adapted for a Seedy Toe is one which 

 restricts its bearing to the solid and resisting parts of the hoof, 

 while it defends from injury the defective parts without im- 

 posing any bearing upon them. For the majority of cases — 

 for all, indeed, of much moment — a har-shoe will be found the 

 most advantageous, owing to the broad and firm bearing it has 

 upon the frog and heels of the wall, and the consequent less 

 necessity there is for it to, in the least, press upon the front of 

 the wall. In slight or incipient cases it may be requisite only 

 to modify the bearing of the shoe the horse has on his foot at the 

 time. 



Whatever shoe be worn, should there appear any indication 

 of the wall sinking — or even disposition in it to sink, — support 

 must be given to the sole. This is best effected by broadening 

 the web of the shoe, and inserting underneath it either a plate 

 of leather or gutta percha, or even common stopping and tow, 

 according as seems most desirable. 



As FOR MEDICINAL APPLICATIONS to the chasm in the hoof, 

 such as ointments and plasters and injections, &c., they are no- 

 wise calculated to work any benefit. The decay or rot, or what- 

 ever it may be, in the horny fibres, seems to have owed its origin 

 to violence of some kind; if the return of which be guarded 

 against, and the decayed portions of horn be radically excised, 

 and their proximate sound parts at the same time com- 

 pletely exposed, while proper precautions are taken in shoeing, 

 the shelly wall will grow down from the coronet in a united 

 and perfect condition, uninfluenced by any applications to the 

 hoof : though, if such be used, the cure of the case will, for 

 the want of understanding it, hardly fail to be attributed to 

 them. 



