DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 3^9 



that aggravated affection of the skin of the heel in which red 

 fungous growths appear. It may be preceded by thrush, and 

 is due to the same general causes, though it is also attributed 

 to a parasitic fungus. It is especially common in coarse lym- 

 phatic subjects. 



Symptoms. — A rapid growth, from the frog or sole or both, of 

 a soft, unhealthy, spongy horn, the tubes of which are un- 

 naturally large, open, and wanting in cohesion, so that they 

 often stand apart from each other, and have the appearance 

 rather of a fleshy material than of horn. If cut down it may 

 grow up to the same level in twenty-four hours, and the enlarged 

 villi are reached and bleed long before this would have hap' 

 pened in healthy horn. As in thrush there is a most offensive 

 discharge, and the disease is very obstinate to treat. 



Treatment. — Cut down the fungous horn till blood comes, 

 and the adjacent horn to the same level. Then cover with tow 

 soaked in tincture of muriate of iron, and apply firm pressure 

 by slips of wood placed side by side with one end of each 

 resting above the web of the shoe at the toe, and the other on 

 a slip extending across the bulbs of the frog and resting above 

 the heels of the shoe. This must be removed and the dressing 

 renewed at least once in twenty-four hours. Should the course 

 of improvement seem lagging, change the dressing for carbolic 

 acid, chromic acid, the mineral acids, sulphate of copper or 

 iron, chloride'of zinc, quicklime, chloride of antimony or other 

 caustic, resort being had to a new one in every instance as the 

 former seems to lose its effect. The removal of the entire sole 

 is essential to recovery in some cases. 



SIMPLE FOOT-ROT IN CATTLE AND SHEEP. 



This is a simple inflammation of the horn-secreting structures 

 and adjacent skin, the result of direct irritation. Wearing of 

 the sole to the quick from long journeys on hard roads ; curling 

 in of overgrown walls on the sole on soft, boggy pastures ; 



