426 OSSIFICATION OF THE CARTILAGES. (SIDE-BONES.) 



most painful and tedious business it is. The principles on wliieli he pro- 

 ceeds are, first of all, to remove the extraneous fungous growth, and for 

 this purpose he will need the aid of the knife and the caustic, or the 

 cautery, for he should cut aivay eveiy portion of horn which is in the 

 slightest degree separated from the sensitive parts beneath. He will hare 

 to discoui-age the growth of fresh fangus, and to bring the foot into that 

 state in which it will again secrete healthy horn. Here he will remember 

 that he has to do with the surface of the foot ; that this is a disease of the 

 surface only, and that there will be no necessity for those deeply-corroding 

 and torturing caustics which penetrate to the very bone. A slight and 

 daily application of nitric acid, and that not where the new horn is form- 

 ing, but on the surface which continues to be diseased, and accompanied 

 by as firm but equal pressure as can be made — the careful avoidance ot 

 the slightest degree of moisture — the horse being exercised or worked in 

 the mill, or wherever the foot Avill not be exposed to wet, and that exer- 

 cise adopted as early as possible, and even from the beginning, if the 

 malady is confined to the sole and frog — these means -will succeed if the 

 disease is capable of cure. Humanity, perhaps, will dictate, that, con- 

 sidering the long process of cure in a cankered foot, and the daily torture 

 of the caustic, and the suffering which would otherwise result from so 

 large or exposed a surface, the nerves of the leg should be divided in order 

 to take away the sense of pain ; and also to induce the animal to place 

 the foot freely to the ground, and thus produce that pressure which is so 

 essential to reduce these fungoid growths. But this will rarely be neces- 

 sary, inasmuch as it is a disease which does not generally cause much 

 pain. It sometimes assumes a very malignant form, and extends rapidly, 

 implicating the coffin-bone and other parts of the foot. In this stage of 

 the disease, all attempts at cure will be fruitless, and the animal should 

 be destroyed. 



Medicine is not of much avail in the cure of canker. It is a local 

 disease ; or the only cause of fear is, that so great a determination of 

 blood to the extremities having existed during the long progress of cure, 

 it may in some degree continue, and produce injury in another form. It 

 may, therefore, be prudent, when the cure of a cankered foot is nearly 

 efiected, to subject the horse to a course of alteratives or diuretics. 



OSSIFICATION OF THE CAETILAGES. ( SIDE-BONES.) 



Mention has been made of the side or lateral cartilages of the foot, 

 occupying a considerable portion of the external side and back part 

 of the foot. They are designed to prevent concussion and preserve the 

 expansion of the upper part of the foot, and especially when that of 

 the lower part is limited or destroyed by careless shoeing. These cartil- 

 ages are subject to inflammation, and the result of that inflammation 

 is, that the cartilages are absorbed, and bone substituted in their stead. 

 This ossification of the cartilages frequently accompanies ringbone, but it 

 may exist without any afiection of the pastern joint. It is oftenest found 

 in horses of heavy draught. Very few heavy draught horses arrive at 

 old age without this change of structure ; and particularly if they are 

 much employed in the paved streets. The change commences sometimes 

 at the anterior part of the cartilage, but much oftener at the posterior 

 and inferior part. 



There are few diseases in which the influence of hereditary pre- 

 disposition is more apparent than in connection with ossification of the 

 lateral cartilages. So much does this prevail in some districts, and 

 especially in the midland counties, that it is somewhat difficult to find a 

 cart-horse eight or nine years old vrithout more or less ossification of the 



