68 THE HOESE AND ITS DISEASES. 



seton. Where there are abscesses, or tumors in the 

 withers or poll, the seton should be passed entirely 

 through, from the bottom to the top, by which the fluid 

 will be discharged, and the accumulation of more 

 prevented. 



They are especially valuable in deep fistulous sores, 

 by giving an out-let to the matter secreted in them, 

 which, if not discharged, would cut deeper into the 

 parts, and without being thus worn oif, the disease 

 would never be extirpated. 



Shoeing. 



Even without the assistance of history, it would 

 naturally suggest itself, that the ingenuity of mankind 

 would be early employed in discovering some mode of 

 counteracting the effects of pressure, and abrasion on 

 the feet of such horses as they had domesticated, for, as 

 commerce and the liberal arts were encouraged among 

 them, so the necessity of forming more easy communi- 

 cations with each other, by means of paved tracks or 

 roads presented itself, and which, as they occasioned an 

 unnatural wear of the feet, it became necessary to 

 counteract the effects of by some artificial defence. In 

 very early ages, a species of sandals were made use of 

 for horses, as well as men, which were formed either of 

 leather, or of matting, but it appears that these were 

 only in occasional use for horses. 



Xenophon, who commanded the cavalry of the Grecian 

 armies, about 500 years before Christ, and who wrote 

 expressly on the subject of horses, mentions such an 

 occasional defence for their feet, in use in his time. In 

 Columella and Yaro, who were subsequent writers, we 

 have additional evidence of this. 200 years after these, 

 Apoyrtus, a famous farrier, who lived in the reign of 

 Constantino, gives express directions for the treatment 

 of bruises and galls of the shank, brought on by the 

 thongs or fastenings of the foot shackles. At later 

 periods, these shackles were strengthened by plates of 



