208 DISEASES OF THE HORSE'S FOOT 



animal treading on the stumps of nails, from treading 

 on an upturned shoe with the stumps of nails in situ, or 

 from treading on an upturned toe-clip. It may also occur 

 from an accidental prick with the stable-fork when ' bed- 

 ding up,' or from casting part of a shoe when on the road 

 and treading on the nails, in this case left sometimes partly 

 in and partly out of the horn. 



' Serious wounds of this description are also met with in 

 animals engaged in carting timber from plantations in 

 which brushwood has recently been cut down. This is, 

 of course, from treading on the stake-like points that are 

 left close to the ground. Hunters also meet with the same 

 class of injury when passing through plantations or over 

 hedge banks, where the hedge has just been laid low or 

 cut down. 



' Agricultural horses also meet with severe wounds of 

 this class from treading on an upturned harrow.'* 



It has been remarked how strange it is that nails should 

 so readily penetrate the comparatively hard covering of the 

 foot. The matter, however, admits of explanation. One 

 knows from common observation how easy it is to tilt a 

 nail with its point upwards by exerting a pressure in a 

 more or less slanting direction upon its head. This is 

 exactly the form of pressure that is no doubt put upon the 

 nail if the animal treads upon it when moving at any pace 

 out of a walk. The foot in its movement forward tilts the 

 nail up, and almost simultaneously puts weight upon it. 

 The great weight of the animal is then quite sufficient to 

 account for its ready penetration. 



In purely country districts cases of punctured foot are of 

 far less frequent occurrence than in large towns. In the 

 latter, animals labouring in yards where a quantity of pack- 

 ing is done, or engaged in carting refuse containing such 

 objects as we have mentioned, or broken pieces of earthen- 

 ware or glass bottles, meet with it constantly. 



For the manner of causation of those wounds to the foot 



* Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, vol. iv., 

 p. 2. 



