436 CATTLE. 



and when the ulcer looks healthy, the tincture of myrrh or Friar's 

 balsam must be used. 



By this mode of treatment, the disease will readily be subdued, 

 but the application of corroding caustic substances in the early 

 stage of it will add fuel to fire ; and the suffering the abscess to re- 

 main unopen until the pus has burst its way through the thick skin 

 of the leg will produce sinuses that will run in every direction, re- 

 main open month after montli, and leave permanent lameness be- 

 hind. Some have imagined that this variety of foul in the foot is 

 contagious. That is not quite ascertained, although there are some 

 suspicious cases on record ; the farmer, therefore, will act prudently, 

 who immediately separates the lame beast from the herd. 



In one respect, these diseases of the feet of cattle differ materi- 

 ally from quitter or canker in the horse. There is a laminated con- 

 nection between the hoof of the ox and the sensible parts beneath, 

 as in the horse ; but the horny plates of the hoof and the fleshy 

 ones of the substance which covers the cofhn-bone are not so wide 

 or so deep, and therefore the attachment between the hoof and the 

 foot is not so strong. Thence it happens that the matter finds great 

 difficulty in forcing a way for itself in the foot of the horse, and 

 deep sinuses are formed, which reach to, and corrode the bone, and 

 there is sometimes core upon core to be detached, and portions of 

 bone to be thrown off", and whence results the cankered state of the 

 foot, and the difficulty of cure. In cattle, less resistance to the pro- 

 gress of the matter is experienced ; the hoof is more easily separated 

 from the parts beneath, and that which would produce deep ulcera- 

 tion and caries in the one, rarely to be perfectly repaired, leads to 

 the casting of the hoof in the other, while the foot has received 

 comparatively little injury. The form of the foot, in these cases, is 

 much changed, and all its functions impaired in the one ; in the 

 other a new hoof speedily covers a foot that has escaped all serious 

 detriment, and the animal becomes as useful as he ever was. Cases, 

 however, do sometimes occur, in which the hoof is lengthened and 

 curved, and twisted in a very curious way, and the coffin-bone takes 

 on a similar distortion. 



There is r\o frog in the foot of cattle, nor are there the provisions 

 for the expansion and elasticity of the foot which we admire in the 

 liorse ; therefore there is not any disease that can be considered as 

 corresponding with the " thrush " in that animal, but there is occa- 

 sionally something not much unlike grease. A sore appears upon 

 the heel, not, however, so much in the form of a crack as of a circu- 

 lar superficial ulcer. It has a brown, unhealthy hue ; fungus often 

 springs from it, and it causes considerable lameness. It is best 

 treated with the chloride of lime, or that and a strong solution of 

 alum ma}' be alternately applied. A bandage should seldom be 

 used, because it can scarcely be put on without excoriating the 



