THE HORSE IN SICKNESS AND DISEASE 407 



strength and elasticity of which they have been deprived, 

 or to take up that hard, horny substance which very 

 speedily fills the space between the crust and the receding 

 coffin-bone. Some efforts have been made to palliate the 

 disease, but they have been only to a very slight extent 

 successful. If horses, on the first appearance of " flat foot," 

 were turned out in a dry place, or put into a box for two 

 or three months, sufficient stress would not be thrown on 

 the leaves to increase the evil, and time might be given for 

 the growth of horn enough in the sole to support the coffin- 

 bone ; yet we much doubt whether these horses would ever 

 be useful even for ordinary purposes. The slowest work 

 required of them would drive the coffin-bone on the sole, 

 and gradually the projection would reappear; for no power 

 and no length of time can again unite the separated leaves 

 of the coffin-bone and the hoof. All that can be done in 

 the way of palliation is by shoeing. Nothing must press 

 on the projecting and pumiced part. If the projection be not 

 great, a thick bar shoe is the best thing that can be applied; 

 but should the sole have much descended, a shoe with a 

 very wide web, bevelled off so as not to press on the part, 

 may be used. These means of relief, however, are only 

 temporary ; the disease will proceed, and, at no great 

 distance of time, the horse will be useless. 



SAND-CRACK — SEEDY-TOE. 



Sand-cracJc is a well-named disorder. It is solution of 

 continuity of the horny fibres of the hoof in the direction 

 of their growth, that is, from above downwards. It is con- 

 sequent upon a dry, brittle state of the hoof, and attacked 

 the horses of the British cavalry and artillery when in 

 Egypt to a great extent. These fissures are much more 

 frequent upon the fore than the hind feet ; but they are 

 sometimes seen on cart horses in front of the hinder foot, 

 from the violent strain put upon this part in drawing 

 heavy loads. They are mostly on the inner side of the 

 fore foot, where the weakness of the quarters, when accom- 

 panied by brittleness, renders it liable to separation. As a 

 sand-crack generally extends to the sensitive parts, it 

 requires that the horse should be taken from work for a 

 time. If the sand-crack shows no sign of active suppura- 

 tion, although it has completely penetrated the horn, and 



