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subside. In cases of injury of the foot, it is well to give a moderate dose of 

 aloes in the first instance, and to feed the animal on a laxative diet of warm 

 water, bran mashes, and oil-cake gruel, until the inflammation and fever 

 subside. Half an ounce of nitre and half an ounce of bicarbonate of 

 potassium, may be given once daily in the drinking water. The writer was 

 recently called to a case where it was necessary to remove the whole of the 

 sole, and the animal, although previously much neglected, made a complete 

 recovery. In some instances, the coffin bone is injured by the penetrating 

 nail, or other foreign substance. Such cases, as a rule, are very severe and 

 lingering. In a horse recently attended, a nail had penetrated into the 

 navicular joint, and caused not only very acute pain, but also very high fever. 

 In such cases, even when the "matter" has been liberated, the animal still goes 

 very lame ; and, indeed, the continuance of thelameness is sometimes the 

 only symptom, which leads us to suspect such a serious condition of the foot. 

 During the early part of last year, we were called to see a six-year-old cart 

 mare. A piece of pointed wood had penetrated into one of the feet, between 

 the bar and the side of the frog, for a distance of about three inches. The 

 pulse was imperceptible, and the mare gasped for breath in her intense 

 agony. In a very short space of time, in spite of all remedial measures, the 

 animal died from the acuteness of the pain. Although strongly recommended 

 by me to shoot the animal, the owner had refused, not realising the futility 

 of treatment. Some years ago the late Mr. D. Gresswell was called to a 

 horse with acute lock-jaw, the result of a nail which had passed into the 

 cleft of the frog. We may conclude our remarks on injuries of the foot, by 

 advising our readers in all severe cases, to procure professional aid as early 

 as possible. 



SIDE-BONE. 



We mentioned, in describing the structures of the horse's foot, that the pedal 

 or coffin bone, contained within the hoof, has, on each side of it, a lateral 

 prolongation of cartilage or gristle. We may now add a few particulars 

 regarding these important appendages, which are generally spoken of as the 

 lateral cartilages. These are thicker and more extensive in the fore than in 

 the hind feet, and are peculiar to the equidas or horse tribe. When one 

 considers the important purpose which these cartilages subserve, it will 

 readily be seen how it is that, if they are ossified, or, in other words, turned 

 into bone through disease, when they are called " side-bones," very untoward 

 results are produced. Regarding the functions of these two thin 

 quadrangular plates of cartilage, which surround the wings of the pedal bone, 

 Professor Williams says, that, in virtue of their elasticity, they assist the 

 sensitive frog and the soft structures of the foot, in regaining their natural 

 position, after being pressed upwards and outwards, by the weight of the 

 animal. Undoubtedly, he writes, they expand at their hinder borders, each 

 time the animal puts his foot to the ground ; but, in this expansion of the 

 heel, they are mere passive agents, being in fact pressed outwards by the 

 structures, contained in the space between them. They are, however, active 



