34G THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



finale is a gangrenous state, characterized by transformations and 

 d.ath of the tissues of the foot. The name of this disease 

 should, therefore, be conferred in accordance with the notable 

 changes that occur throughout its progress : they are inflamma- 

 tion, suppuration, gangrene; and it often happens that the abnor- 

 mal process is arrested in either one or the other of the first 

 stages, although it is prone to run into gangrenes. These char- 

 acteristic symptoms furnish a title for the disease; and should 

 death supervene, whether in the inflammatory, suppurative, or 

 putrid stages, the name of the disease will be that of the cause 

 of death ; so that foot rot — if it imply a rotten, putrid, or gan- 

 grenous state — should be termed inflammatory gangrene, which 

 is produced by extravasated blood, or rather fluids, they rapidly 

 passing into a state of decomposition, thus destroying the vitality 

 of those tissues — the lamina? of the foot — so that the hoof fre- 

 quently separates from its attachments and falls off. 



Case. — A horse, the property of Mr. Doolittle, doing business 

 in Ivers Street, was punctured by picking up a nail ; it entered 

 the sole midway between the point of the frog and the toe of the 

 off hind foot : it was dressed in the usual manner by a black- 

 smith. On the following day the author was requested to see 

 the animal. He was found standing on three legs ; the affected 

 limb drawn up towards the body ; the foot very hot and painful ; 

 the flank on that side bedewed with perspiration ; pulse quick and 

 jerking ; mouth hot and clammy : in short, sympathetic fever had 

 set in. On removing the shoe and dressings, a small quantity 

 of pus streaked with blood oozed out of the puncture, on dilating 

 which with a drawing knife, a very profuse discharge followed. 

 Two or three poultices, of an antiseptic and astringent charac- 

 ter, were applied. Chloride of soda, salt and vinegar, fir bal- 

 sam, solution of alum, zinc, and such constitutional remedies as 

 the case seemed to require, were resorted to ; but all to no pur- 

 pose : the horse grew rapidly worse ; a thin, aqueous, and acrid 

 discharge from the quarters and coronet took place, which finally 

 separated the hoof* from its matrix: the discharge degenerated 

 until it became of a dark reddish color, very offensive. The 

 tissues above the hoof underwent cellular transformations, and 

 bulged out about an inch or more beyond their ordinary limits, 



