308 DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 



The contraction, however, that is connected with permanent lameness, although 

 increased by the circumstances which we have mentioned, usuall}' derives its origin 

 from a different source, and from one that acts violently and suddenly. Inflammation 

 of the little plates covering the coffin-bone is the most usual cause ; and a degree of 

 inflammation not sufficiently intense to be characterised as acute founder, but quickly 

 leading to sad results, may and does spring from causes almost unsuspected. There 

 is one fact to which we have alluded, and that cannot be doubted, that contraction is 

 exceedingly rare in the agricultural horse, but frequently occurs in the stable of the 

 gentleman and the coach-proprietor. It is rare where the horse is seemingly neglected 

 and badly shod ; and frequent where every care is taken of the animal, and the shoes 

 are unexcej)tionable and skilfully applied. Something may depend upon the breed. 

 Blood horses are particularly liable to contraction. Not only is the foot naturally 

 small, but it is disposed to become narrower at the heels. On the other hand, the 

 broad, flat foot of the cart-horse is subject to diseases enough, but contraction is sel- 

 dom one of the number.* In horses of equal blood, not a little seems to depend upcn 

 the colour, and the dark chestnut is proverbially prone to contraction. 



Whatever is the cause of that rapid contraction or narrowing of the heels which is 

 accompanied by severe lameness, the symptoms may be easily distinguished. While 

 standing in the stable the horse will point with, or place forward, the contracted foot, 

 or, if both feet are affected, he will alternately place one before the other. When he 

 is taken out of the stable, he will not, perhaps, exhibit the decided lameness which 

 charactetises sprain of the flexor tendon, or some diseases of the foot; but his step 

 will be peculiarly short and quick, and the feet will be placed gently and tenderly on 

 the ground, or scarcely lifted from it in the walk or the trot. It would seem as if the 

 slightest irregiilarity of surface would throw the animal down, and so it threatens to 

 do, for he is constantly tripping and stumbling. If the fore-feet are carefully observed, 

 one CI both of them will be narrowed across the quarters and towards the heels. In a 

 few cases the whole of the foot appears to be contracted and shrunk ; but in the majo- 

 rity of instances, while the heels are narrower, the foot is longer. The contraction 

 appears sometimes in both heels : at other times in the inner heel only ; or, if both are 

 afl'ected, the inner one is wired in the most, either from the coronet to the base of the 

 foot, or only or principally at the coronet — oftener near the base of the foot — but in 

 most cases the hollow being greatest about mid-way between the coronet and the bot- 

 tom of the foot. This irregularity of contraction, and uncertainty as to the place of 

 it, prove that it is some internal disorganization, the seat of which varies with the 

 portion of the attachment between the hoof and the foot that was principally strained 

 or injured. In every recent case the contracted part will be hotter than the rest of 

 the foot, and the sole will, in the majority of cases, be unnaturally concave. 



Of the treatment of contraction attended with lameness little can be said that will 

 be satisfactory. Numberless have been the mechanical contrivances to o])pose the 

 progress of contraction, or to force back the foot to its original shape, and many of 

 them have enjoyed considerable but short-lived reputation. A clip was placed at the 

 inside of each heel, which, resting on the bars, was intended to aftord an insur- 

 mountable obstacle to the further wiring in of the foot, while the heels of the shoe 

 were bevelled outward in order to give the foot a tendency to expand. The foot, 

 however, continued to contract, until the clip was embedded in the horn, and worse 

 lameness was produced. 



A shoe jointed at the toe, and with a screw adapted to the heels, was contrived, by 

 which, when softened by poulticing, or immersion in warm water, the quarters were 

 to be irresistibly widened. They were widened by the daily and cautious use of the 

 screw until the foot seemed to assume its natural form, and the inventor began to 

 exult in having discovered a cure for contraction : but, no sooner was the common 



* A valued correspondent suggests, that the difierence between these two kinds of horses 

 may perhaps throw some light on the subject. The long-continued and heavy pressure on 

 the frog in the cart-horse produces ossification of the cartilages, from which the blood-horse 

 is free. In the quickness of the action of the blood-horse, the expansion of the frog is not 

 sufficiently continued to produce this effect ; but the concussion is severe, and the frog and the 

 shorter lamina towards the heel are the first to sufl^er, and contraction ensues. We do not find 

 contraction in the hind feet, where there is little contraction, nor ossification, liecause the 

 pressure is chiefly on the toe. Quick draught-horses have it both ways, but chiefly in con- 

 traction. 



The reader will form hia own opinion on this subject. 



