THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 293 



cannot be artificially, made suddenly operative upon the heels — 

 rarely have grease. Those that have grease in stables are 

 mostly coach and cart horses, with thick, fleshy heels and white 

 legs ; which are subject to get their heels wet, and do not com- 

 monly have such pains bestowed upon them, to dry the legs, as 

 hackneys, hunters, and racers have. Indeed, among the latter, 

 grease is a very uncommon disease. Such horses also stand in 

 stables hot and filthy from dung and urine, the very exhalations 

 from the litter of which proves an additional excitement. 



u Grease formerly made great ravages in the English cavalry 

 and ordnance service ; whereas at the present day the disease is 

 scarcely known. This change for the better is ascribed to three 

 causes — to proper ventilation of the stables; the greater atten- 

 tion paid to grooming; and to the presence of a veterinary sur- 

 geon, who checks, at the onset, such a casual occurrence." 



Sainbel, who wrote An Essay on Grease, for which he was 

 presented with a prize by the Royal Society of Medicine in 

 France, thus commences his paper : " Grease is, in general, a 

 cutaneous, chronic affection ; sometimes inflammatory, sometimes 

 infectious, and I have known it contagious. It invades the legs 

 of horses, asses, and mules, but seldom attacks those of the ru- 

 minating species. We are told that cow-pock had its origin in 

 the transfer of the matter of grease from the heel of a horse to 

 the teat of a cow, and that the disease may be communicated to the 

 human subject by inoculation with this matter, the same as with 

 that taken from the ulcerated teat of the cow. Some have gone 

 further than this, and said that glanders and farcy could be gen- 

 erated in this way. The accounts of these strange transactions, 

 however, have made but little impression ; for we hear nothing 

 of them nowadays ; and that is not a very bad criterion of their 

 want of truth and foundation altogether. I have heard Pro- 

 fessor Coleman say, that there never was a well-authenticated 

 case of cow-pock being produced from grease ; and I verily be- 

 lieve myself — though I do not know that the fact has been ex- 

 perimented on — that there is no truth of its being communicable 

 among horses. In certain seasons and situations, the disease is 

 certainly sporadic, (affecting a few at any time or season;) but, 

 then, the causes are too manifestly operative among horses 

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