AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 247 



crease of substance. Corns in the feet of horses are mere 

 bruises. Every body has seen or experienced the effects of 

 bruises upon the human nail. Corns in the feet of horses 

 are injuries of a similar nature. The red appearance which 

 they have is caused by an extravasation of blood, which 

 spreads itself among the fibres of the horny hoof. Corns 

 are generally occasioned by the shoe. They may, however, 

 arise from other injuries. They are easily cured by suitable 

 remedies and a proper mode of shoeing, unless the inflam- 

 mation occasioned by the injury has been of long standing, 

 and assumed a chronic character. In this case, the cure is 

 more tedious. 



Horse-ail. I will take this opportunity to make a few re- 

 marks on the nature of this complaint. 



Strictly speaking, all diseases of horses are horse-ails ; but 

 custom has given this epithet to a species of disease very 

 common among our horses. The disease referred to is called 

 strangles in most of the old books on farriery. It consists 

 in an inflammation of the membrane lining the nose and the 

 arytGenoid cartilages. This disease is accompanied by a 

 cough and discharge from the nostrils. The cough is sym- 

 pathetic, and is produced by the extreme sensibility of the 

 membrane thus inflamed. The lightest dust, or eveii a drop 

 of water lodged upon this membrane, in this irritable state, 

 produces coughing. The inflammation sometimes extends to 

 the lungs, and then this disease is accompanied with a dis- 

 ease of the chest, and requires speedy and energetic treat- 

 ment, as inflammation of the lungs in the horse is apt to ter- 

 minate speedily in gangrene. Copious bleeding, from six to 

 ten quarts at first, and smaller bleedings afterwards, as the 

 state of the case may require, and small doses of aloes, from 

 one to two drachms, given daily, have been found the most 

 successful remedies in inflammation of the lungs. Drastic 

 purgatives should be avoided, as they increase the irritation 

 and put the life of the horse in extreme hazard. 



It has been stated above, that the diseases of animals dif- 

 fer as much as their anatomy and physiology. The specific 

 effect of medicine upon different animals is no less various 

 than their structure and diseases. 



Glauber salts, in doses of one pound, operate on the ox as 

 a cathartic, but on the horse they operate principally as a 

 diuretic. Castor-oil does not operate on the horse as a pur- 

 gative, any more than train-oil or any other oil. 



Opium does not produce its specific effect upon the horse. 



