128 



GREASE (SCRATCHES); CHAPPED HEELS; CAN- 



* KER; THRUSH. 



The 



ETIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY 



of all these diseased conditions are substantially of the same 

 nature. They are diseases of the various secreting structures 

 of the foot, or of its immediate connections. The fetid fluid 

 emanations from these structures, are the perverted and vitiated 

 secretions, which under healthy conditions were requisite for the 

 fulfillment of certain appropriate functions, in providing for 

 the wear and tear of the horny tissues in the latter cases, and 

 of keeping the skin of the heels supple and soft in the former 

 case. 



FATTY FOLLICLES AND THEIR FUNCTIONS. 



It may not be known to every one of my readers that the 

 entire skin of the animal is kept in a supple condition by an 

 oily secretion which is formed within the skin, through the 

 means of the sebaceous glands, or fatty follicles, and that those 

 parts where there is the greatest amount of motion in conse- 

 quence of their contiguity to joints, and therefore, liability to 

 stretch, the skin is thinnest, and the fatty follicles are clustered 

 together in the greatest number. In no part of the body are 

 these follicles exposed more to deleterious influences than at 

 the heels. Here they are more exposed to wet and cold, and 

 the effects of accumulations of mud, and neglect ; and remote- 

 ness frorn the centre of circulation, than at any other part of 

 the system, and here the motions of the foot and their imme- 

 diate contact with horn-structure require that they should be 

 kept in the highest state of efficiency. 



CROWDING AND DWARFING THE TISSUES. 



That the mildness or malignancy of the diseases depend 

 much upon local and constitutional causes, the result of neglect 

 and bad stable management, cannot be questioned. 



