THE HORSE IN SICKNESS AND DISEASE 413 



enfeeble parts already deficient in blood-stimulus. Neuro- 

 tomy, in extreme cases, is resorted to. It affords in these 

 cases the only chance of the horse being serviceable for a 

 time. Of course, it does not cure the disorder; but it 

 destroys sensibility. Hence, the animal often ruptures the 

 tendon, or fractures the bone by a violent contact of the 

 insensible foot with the ground. The animal must then be 

 destroyed. 



PUNCTURED SOLE, OR WOUNDED CRUST. 



The sole is obviously very liable to wounds by nails, 

 flints, pieces of glass, and the like. Frequently, too, but not 

 so often as in former times, the laminse are wounded by the 

 nail in shoeing ; or if the nail does not penetrate through 

 the internal surface of the crust, it is driven so close to it 

 that it presses upon the fleshy parts beneath, and causes 

 irritation and inflammation, and at length ulceration. When 

 a horse becomes suddenly lame, after the legs have been 

 carefully examined, and no cause of lameness appears in 

 them, the shoe should be taken off. In many cases the 

 offending substance will be immediately detected; or the 

 additional heat felt in some part of the foot will point out 

 the seat of injury; or, if the crust be rapped with the 

 hammer all round, the flinching of the horse will discover 

 it ; or pressure with the pincers will render it evident. 



When the shoe is removed for this examination, the smith 

 should never be permitted to wrench it off, but each nail 

 should be drawn separately, and examined as it is drawn, 

 when some moisture appearing upon one of them will not 

 unfrequently reveal the spot at which matter has been thrown 

 out. In the fore foot the injury will generally be found on 

 the inner quarter, and on the hind feet near the toe, these 

 being the thinnest parts of the fore and hind feet. 



Sudden lameness, occurring within two or three days 

 after the horse has been shod, will lead us to suspect that 

 the smith has been in fault ; yet no one who considers the 

 thinness of the crust, and the difficulty of shoeing many 

 feet, will blame him for sometimes pricking the horse. His 

 fault will consist in concealing or denying that of which he 

 will almost always be aware at the time of shoeing, from 

 the flinching of the horse, or the dead sound, or the peculiar 

 resistance that may be noticed in the driving of the nail. 



