310 .lin; MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



of food should be lessened. When the sinuses are superficial, 

 and do not extend beyond the coronal region, injections may 

 be tried : among the most efficient are solution of alum, zinc, and 

 sulphate of iron ; tincture of muriate of iron, and tincture of blood- 

 root. In some cases, however, the knife will be required. 



PUM-ICE FOOT. 



Pumice foot is an aggravated form of convex sole, attended 

 with a morbid condition of the parts and laminal dislocation. 

 We now and then see an aged animal, which has long been the 

 subject of chronic disease on the fore feet, presenting actual pro- 

 trusion of the coffin bone, forwards, between the wall of the hoof 

 and sole ; and the bone is of a spongy character, studded with 

 crystallizations, composed of phosphate of lime, Sec. The disease 

 also occurs in animals that have led a sort of fast life ; that have 

 been trained for the course ere they had attained maturity ; pam- 

 pered and fed on highly nutritious grain, and driven at times be- 

 yond endurance, until a morbid habit is firmly established, which 

 may affect the feet either directly or metastatically. The pa- 

 thology of pumice sole, says Mr. Percivall, amounts to this : " In 

 consequence of inflammation in them, be that inflammation acute 

 or sub-acute, the sensitive lamina?, from causes which have already 

 been detailed, become detached from their union with the horny 

 laminae, and the coffin bone, losing its ties of suspension, is pressed 

 down by the weight upon the horny sole, which, unable to bear 

 the burden thus unnaturally transmitted to it, bulges, and either 

 immediately or some short time afterwards bursts, and lets the 

 toe of the coffin bone, with its covering of sensitive sole, through 

 its breach. This, and this state of foot alone, it is, either actually 

 present or impending, which properly constitutes pumice foot. 

 Flat feet, nay, even convex and fleshy feet, do not of themselves 

 amount to pumice, but, on the contrary, may exist independently 

 of it. They may be, and are, dependent upon altered states of 

 the hoof alone ; whereas pumice foot consists in disorganization 

 of the interior economy of the foot ; in altered structure and rela- 

 tive situation of the parts within the hoof, and in partial escape 

 of them. 



