CHAPTER XIX. 



LOCKJAW. 



Is lockjaw a common disorder? 



" Fortunately not, being very dangerous." 



What produces it? 



" Such similar causes as produce it in man. A 

 nail cutting a nerve in the foot, sometimes a splinter 

 of wood, or wounds which cause great inflammation 

 and poison the system. Unless great care be taken 

 in 'docking, ' lockjaw is likely to follow the opera- 

 tion, and it is seldom that a horse so afflicted can 

 recover. A large proportion of horses docked die of 

 lockjaw." 



Have you seen the late controversy about corns 

 on horses' feet. Count, and do you consider them 

 curable? 



"Certainly, they can be cured, if great care be 

 taken in shoeing, for it is the shoe which produces 

 corns. The quarter-hoof should never have a nail 

 in it, as it is in the corners where come the bars and 

 the crust that the corn has its beginning. A care- 

 less blacksmith will cut the bars and open the frog, 

 and thus open the hoof, into which dirt and mud 

 enter and find an abiding- place. That part of the 

 shoe which goes beyond the quarter-hoof does not 

 even -pretend to fit the foot sometimes, but curves 



I02 



