PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF FEET. 825 



hoof together I must devote myself, with the view to make intel- 

 ligible what I have to state. 



1 must premise my description of the case by stating that all 

 four of this horse's feet were alike affected, and almost in the same 

 degree, the ravages sustained by the two fore feet somewhat pre- 

 ponderating. My information obtained on the origin of the disease 

 recompensed the journey to Ayrshire; I learned that one hind foot 

 was first affected; a fissure appeared in the front of the hoof, 

 always a painful affection until the cause is removed, and a cure 

 effected. Lame of one hind foot, and all tho hoofs in a weak state, 

 inflammation set up in the other hind and over-burdened one; then 

 reaction, with inflammation of the other hind foot, and first one 

 fore foot and then the other became affected; the result was that 



FIG. 729. 



the animal was doomed to lie suffering, because he had not a foot 

 that he could stand upon. All this was endured for several weeks 

 before the horse succumbed.* 



Reference again to Fig. 729 shows the flattened lower portion 

 of the coffin-bone, and in some measure the extent to which it be- 

 came reduced; not, as in chronic cases, slowly, but rapidly all in 

 the space of a few weeks. (The drawing taken of the one must 

 be regarded as representing the state of the coffin-bones and the 

 hoofs of all four feet.) 



I devoted several months, at intervals, to the dissection and 

 study of three out of the four feet, the two fore and the hind one 

 first affected; and I never investigated such a case before. The 

 ravages that disease had made were entirely confined to the lower 



*In reference to this special case, we should never allow the dissolution of the 

 suspensary power to progress to an incurable extent, but relieve the laminae of the 

 strain by taking off the weight either by slinging or throwing the horse, cooling 

 the feet, poultice, bleeding, and as soon as the Inflammation subsides to blister the 

 coronet thoroughly. Prof. Hamill. (See Laminitis.) 



