PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF FEET. 



803 



Description of Some of the Pathological Conditions of 

 Horses' Feet, Commonly Present in the Various 

 Stages of Chronic Lameness.* 



The morbid specimens selected for the drawings which illus- 

 trate this section of my Avork. comprise some of the most impor- 

 tant conditions commonly met with in lame horses, the occurrence 

 of which it is my object to prevent and remedy. 



The chronic anomalous conditions of horses' feet, entailing lame- 

 ness of more or less acute degree, present two quite opposite ap- 

 pearances to our view ; the one a wasting and the other an e?i- 

 grossment of structures, the textures of the parts affected being 



Fig. 704. 



in both instances greatly changed. In describing these conditions, 

 I shall laake use of the appropriate short terms, — Atrophy and 

 Hypertrophy. 



Fig. 704 represents a transverse section of the hoof of a fore foot 

 of an aged cart-horse, in which the sole had become flattened, and at 

 some points had even passed the plane, and assumed the convex, in 

 contrast to the normal concave form of surface. 



Fig. 705 represents tlie coflin-bone of the same foot, as that 

 of the hoof described, and shows how exactly the outhne and sur- 

 faces of one accord with those of the other, which characteristics 

 are made more manifest when the parts are handled. It is true 

 that these surfaces are not met with quite regular, but the irregu- 



*To illustrate some of the chang-es of structure that take place in the foot, as 

 the result of iuflammation, etc., 1 copy the followiug article from Gamgee on Lame- 

 ness. 



