LAMENESS, FROM VARIOUS CAUSES. 386 



The cause of corn is a most important subject of inquiry, and 

 which a careful examination of the foot and the shoe will easily 

 discover. The cause being ascertained, the effect may, to a gi'eal 

 extent, be afterward removed. Turning out to grass, after the 

 horn is a little grown, first with the bar-shoe and afterward with 

 the shoe fettered on one side, or with tips, will often be service- 

 able. A horse that has once had corns to any considerable extent 

 •hould, at every shoeing, have the seat of corn well pared out, and 

 the butter of antimony applied. The seated shoe should be used, 

 with a web sufficiently thick to cover the place of corn, and extend- 

 ing as fur back as it can be made to do without injury to the frog. 



Low, weak heels should be rarely touched with the knife, or 

 any thing more be done to them than lightly to rasp them, in 

 order to give them a level surface. The inner heel should bo 

 particularly spared. Corns are seldom found in the hind feet, 

 because the heels are stronger, and the feet are not exposed to sc 

 much concussion ; and when they are found there, they are rarely 

 or never productive of lameness. There is nothing perhaps in 

 which the improvement in the veterinary art has relieved the 

 horse from so much suffering as shoeing. Where corns now exist 

 of any consequence, they are a disgrace to the smith, the groom, 

 and even to the owner." 



Lameness. 



We have already considered the nature and treatment of vari- 

 ous forms of lameness, occurring in consequence of strain or sprain 

 of different parts of the body ; also that attending rheumatism and 

 diseases of the feet. It only remains to offer a few remarks on 

 some special forms of lameness. Lameness occurs in one of two 

 forms. We either find it in the acute stage, when, from injury 

 OT other causes, it comes on suddenly ; or else in the chronic stege, 

 tiiat form which has existed for some time. Therefore, there being 

 Ouly two forms of lameness, there are only two indications to fulfill, 

 namely: in the acute stage, we endeavor to lessen the activity in 

 the circulation, heat, and pain of the parts by rest and cold-water 

 bathing ; and when pain exists, we mitigate it by bathing the af- 

 fected part3 with cold infusion of hops or poppy-heads. When 

 the affection assumes a chronic tvpe, we apply stimulants and 

 Bounter-irritants. The following is the best remedy in use : 

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