194 GEEASE. — CHAPPED HEELS. 



unlike small bunctes of grapes ; or, were it not for their colour, 

 like a full-blown cauliflower. 



At first these growths are highly sensitive, but this sensi- 

 tiveness in time becomes less and less as they become indurated, 

 insensible, cartilaginous, and even horny, which would appear 

 to be their final state. " Other changes accompany these : 

 the hair gradually falls ofi", leaving the grapes either destitute 

 of any at all, or but very thinly beset with them, and those 

 few in a state of erection, like bristles upon a hog's back. 

 From such parts of the skin as remain unoccupied by grapes, 

 and from the crevices between them, issues a greasy, rancid, 

 and most offensive discharge, here and there mingled with 

 blood. By this time, also, the leg has acquired an enormous 

 bulk, from which circumstance alone, independently of its 

 sore and painful condition, the action of the whole limb is 

 greatly impeded."* In other cases again, the malady attacks 

 the feet of the greasy limbs ; it spreads from the heels 

 to the frogs and the soles of the feet, and is so destructive 

 in its progress, that the frog, the horny, and the sensitive 

 soles becomes one mass of rottenness, diff'using an odour 

 " which is smelt ere it is seen." 



Causes. — The causes of Grease are numerous. They are 

 of a twofold nature, viz. : such as predispose the animal to the 

 malady ; and such as excite it. 



The predisposing causes are breed and structural peculiari- 

 ties. Coarse-bred and round-boned horses are extremely prone 

 to attacks of this nature. Clipping the hair off the heels, par- 

 ticularly during the prevalence of wet weather, or wet in 

 alternation with frost, will cause the heels to speedily crack and 

 inflame. The bringing up of young horses from grass, and 

 placing them at once to live upon hard food, or the feeding of 



* Percival's Hippopathology. 



