THE HORSE, ITS DISEASES. 465 



on with two clips in front to hold the parts together, and the animal kept 

 in a clean, soft pasture until a new hoof is grown. An examination of the 

 pails being made from time to time to see that no grit or foreign sub- 

 stance has entered to increase the difficulty. 



Sand-cracks, quarter-cracks, and false-quarters, will require time to 

 «usure full recovery, and the time so consumed should not be grudged. 



XIV. Pumice Foot. 



Pumice foot, the effect of chronic laminitis, is an excessive growth 

 of soft, spongy horn in place of the healthy hoof, forming rings running 

 together at the toe, causing a bulging at that point and a depression 

 above This growth in front of the laminae of the toe separates the 

 coffin bone from the wall of the hoof, and allows the bone to press upon 

 the sole and even to pierce through it. Thus the sole becomes convex 

 instead of concave, the animal becoming groggy, and in time quite crip- 

 pled. This state is almost entirely confined to animals with flat feet and 

 weak limbs, weak and brittle crusts to the feet, with large, prominent frogs. 



What to do. — In bad cases there can be no cure. Much may be done 

 to alle\date distress, and enable the horse to do slow work, especially on 

 the farm. Put on a thick, broad webbed bar shoe, a dished shoe having 

 the web hollowed out, or beveled toward the inner side on the upper sur- 

 face and thinned down from the toe to the heel. It is better that the 

 shoe be also assisted with a bearing of leather next the sole. 



The hoof should be smeared daily with equal parts of glycerine and 

 tar. If heated in slightly so much the better. The sole should also 

 have the same application. Apply a mild blister to the coronet from 

 time to time to stimulate action, and turn the horse into a soft, damp 

 pasture. Thus in time a fairly smooth hoof may be grown, but it can 

 never be expected to be entirely sound. 



XV. Seedy Toe. 



The wall of the foot is composed of two layers, the outer one darker, 

 harder and thinner than the inside one ; the inner layer thicker, softer 

 and lighter in color than the outer. The outside layer is secreted by the 

 coronet, the inner one from the sensitive laminae. In health these are 

 intimately united, forming the thick, tough, elastic hoof, capable of 

 bearing the shocks of the body in traveling. 



Causes.' — If from any cause, inherent weakness, undue shocks, disin- 

 tegi-ating the laminae, or other cause, the separation begins at the toe, 

 just as in the human nail the separation begins at the margin — it produ- 

 ces seedy toe. 



