CONTRACTION. 297 



foot to its orin-inal shape, and many of tliem have enjoyed considera])le but 

 short-lived reputation. A dip was placed at the inside of each heel of the 

 shoes, which, resting on the bars, was intended to afford an insurmount- 

 able obstacle to the further wiring- in of the foot, while the heels of the 

 shoe were bevelled outward to give the foot a tendency to expand. The 

 foot, however, continued to wire in, until the clip was imbedded in the 

 horn, and worse lameness was produced. 



A shoe jointed at the toe, and with a screw adapted to the heels, was 

 contrived, by which, when softened by poulticing, or immersion in v. arm 

 water, the quarters were to be irresistibly widened. They were widened 

 by the daily and cautious use of the screw until the foot seemed to assume 

 its natural form, and the inventor began to exult in having discovered 

 a cure for contraction ; but no sooner was the common shoe again applied 

 and the horse returned to his work, than the heels began again to narrow, 

 and the foot became as contracted as ever. Common sense would have 

 foretold that such must have been the result of this expansive process ; for 

 the heel could have been only thus forced asunder, at the expense of partial 

 or total separation from the interior portions of the foot with which they 

 w ere in contact. 



The contracted heel can rarely or never permanently expand, for this 

 plain reason, that although we have power over the crust, we cannot make 

 the lengthened and narrowed coffin-bone resume its natural shape, or restore 

 the portion of the frog Avhich has been absorbed. 



If the action of the horse be not materially impaired, it is better to let the 

 contraction alone, be it as great as it will. If the contraction has evidently 

 produced considerable lameness, then the owner of the horse will calculate 

 between his value if cured, the expense of the cure, and the probability 

 of failure. 



The medical treatment can only be undertaken by a skilful veterinarian, 

 and it will principally consist in getting rid of any inflammation that may 

 then exist, by local bleeding and physic ; next, paring the sole to the utmost 

 extent that it will bear ; rasping the (quarters as deeply as may be, so tliat 

 they shall not be too much weakened, or the coronary ring (see b, p. 281) 

 injured; then rasping deeply likewise at the toe, and perhaps scoring at 

 the toe. The horse is afterwards made to stand during the day in wet 

 clay, placed in one of the stalls of his stable, and he is moved at night into 

 another stall, and his feet bound up thickly in wet cloths ; or he is turned 

 out into wet pasturage, with tips, or, if possible, without them, and his 

 feet are frequently pared out, and the quarters lightly rasped. In five or 

 six months the horn will have grown fairly down, when he may be taken 

 up, and shod with shoes, unattached by nails on the inner side of the foot, 

 and put to gentle work. The foot will be found very considerably enlarged, 

 and the owner will, perhaps, think that the cure is accomplished ; and the 

 horse may, possibly, for a time stand very gentle work, and the inner side 

 of the foot being left at liberty, its natural expansive process may be 

 resumed. The internal part of the foot, however, has not healthily 

 filled up with the expansion of the crust. If that expansion has been 

 effected forward on the quarters, the crust will no longer be in contact 

 with the lengthened and narrowed heels of the coffin-bone; there will 

 not be the natural adhesion and strength, and a very slight cause, or 

 even the very habit of contraction, will, in spite of all our care and the free- 

 dom of the inner quarter, in very many instances, cause the foot to wire in 

 again as badly as before. 



