PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF FEET. 



825 



hoof together 1 must devote myself, with the view to make intel- 

 ligible what 1 have to state. 



1 must premise my description of the case by stating that all 

 four of this horse's feet were alike affected, and almost in the same 

 degree, the ravages sustained by the two fore feet somewhat pre- 

 ponderating. 3Iy information obtained on the origin of the disease 

 recompensed the journe}'" to Ayrshire; I learned that one hind foot 

 was first affected; a -fissure appeared in the front of the hoof, 

 always a painful affection until the cause is removed, and a cure 

 effected. Lame of one hind foot, and all the hoofs in a weak state, 

 inflammation set up in the other hind and over-burdened one; then 

 reaction, Avith inflammation of the other hind foot, and first one 

 fore foot and then the other became affected; the result Avas that 



Fig. 729. 



the animal was doomed to lie suffering, because he had not a foot 

 that he could stand upon. All this Avas endured for several weeks 

 before the horse succumbed.* 



Eeference again to Fig. 729 shows the flattened lower portion 

 of the coffin-bone, and in some measure the extent to Avhich it be- 

 came reduced; not, as in chronic. cases, slowly, but rapidly — all in 

 the space of a few Aveeks. (The drawing taken of the one must 

 be regarded as repi^esenting the state of the coffin-bones and the 

 hoofs of all four feet.) 



I devoted scA^eral months, at intervals, to the dissection and 

 study of three out of the four feet, the tAvo fore and the hind one 

 first affected; and I never investigated such a case before. The 

 ravages that disease had made Avere entirely confined to thc^ loAvor 



*In reference to this special case, we should never allow the dissolution of the 

 suspensary power to progress to an incurable extent, but relieve the laminye of tlie 

 strain by taking off the Aveight either by slinging or throAving the horse, cooling 

 the feet, poultice, bleeding, and as soon as the inflammation subsides to blister the 

 cor()n(-t thoroughly. — Prof. Hamill, (See Lamiaitis.) 



