386 THE FARM DOCTOR. 



wall may be resorted to, but it is beyond the scope of this work 

 to do more than hint at what can only be accomplished by a 

 combination of anatomical knowledge, mechanical skill, and 

 manual dexterity. 



CONTRACTION. 



This is a great bugbear of horsemen, since it exists in nearly 

 all the affections of the foot. It is usually a result and symp- 

 tom of disease, attending, as we have seen, on many different 

 maladies in which the hoof shrinks from the heaf, dryness, and 

 disuse. It may also occur from simple idleness in a stall; from 

 overgrowth of the hoof- wall, which curls in for want of support 

 from the sole and moisture from the laminae ; from hardening 

 and shrinking of the heels as the result of rasping, or of alter- 

 nate soakings and drying ; from undue paring of the heels, bars 

 and frog, thus removing the natural supports ; and from the 

 effects of the shoe and nails in preventing the normal expansion 

 in growth, and in removing the frog and sole from use and 

 pressure. Thus produced it is not a direct cause of lameness, 

 and feet can be shown in which the t'vo heels overlap each 

 other without such a result. Yet such contraction implies 

 wasting or absorption of the internal sensitive structures, 

 diminution of the basis of support, with a corresponding weak- 

 ness and tendency to disease under slighter determining causes 

 than in the healthy state. The simplest treatment is to remove 

 the shoes round the edges of the hoof- wall to prevent splitting, 

 and keep standing sixteen hours a day, for two or three weeks, 

 in a puddle of wet clay, then use hoof ointments freely, and 

 apply a shoe with equal bearing throughout, and without any 

 bevel on its upper surface. 



TREADS ON THE CORONET. 



These are especially common in winter when the shoes are 

 sharpened for frost. They are dangerous because of the fre- 

 quent implication of the horn- secreting structures, so as to 



