DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 339 



between this country and France ; but as to shoeing, it has 

 little or nothing at all to do with it. It is entirely caused by 

 the immoderate work that horses are made to do, and until 

 this evil is corrected, the number of such lamenesses will not 

 diminish, whatever mode of shoeing may be employed. 



I think it necessary, however, to observe in this place, that 

 a great deal may be done for the relief of post and coach, and I 

 may add waggon, horses, but more especially for the two former. 

 They are generally shod in the most slovenly and injurious 

 manner imaoinable, and this not altogether from the fault of the 

 smith, but of the proprietor ; who, in endeavouring to get his 

 work done as cheap as he can, is not aware that he is causing 

 his horses to be crippled. Corns are very common among such 

 horses, and instead of being properly managed, the horse is 

 compelled to work with them as long as he is able to stand. 

 Their feet are always in a state of inflammation, and no means 

 ai'c employed for relieving them. The low price at which the 

 smith works will not permit him to do what is necessary to the 

 feet. He is sometimes allowed, it is true, a compensation in 

 attending them when they break out at the coronet from neg- 

 lected corns, or become so lame from excessive inflammation in 

 the laminated substance of the foot that they are unable to stand. 

 He is then permitted, perhaps, to rub in some strain oils on 

 the shoulder or fetlock joint ; or he may be paid for bleeding 

 now and then when a horse is too full of corn, or worked into a 

 fever, and then suddenly cooled in a pond or river ; or he may 

 be allowed to give some cordials when a hoi'se is exhausted by 

 excessive labour. But it is better for a post-master to attend 

 to a horse's feet himself, and pay the smith a fair price for his 

 labour. 



Chronic lameness may exist in various degree.?, and in the 

 early stages of the disorder a horse may do considerable work 

 by paring his feet properly, and keeping them cool and moist ; 

 by paring the soles, putting on a wide hollow shoe, and keeping 

 them stopped with tar ointment. By such management, the 

 progress of the disease may be retarded, and the horse much 

 relieved ; but it can never be cured. Most commonly the dis- 

 ease gradually gets worse, and at length the horse becomes 

 unfit for every kind of work. At this period the horse is 

 generally blistered or fired, and turned to grass. But this never 

 does any good. Shoes with claws, or hinges and screws, have 

 been proposed and employed with a view to open the heels, but 

 of course they have never done any good, either in the way of 

 prevention or cure. The hoof has been all rasped away, and 

 the horse turned to grass until a new hoof has grown down of 

 a proper form, but it has never done any good. That cruel 

 operation of tearing off the sole, technically termed drawing the 



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