CHAPTER XV. 



THE DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 



Op these there is a long list. 1 hat will not be wondered at by 

 those who have duly considered the complicated structure of the 

 foot, the duty it has to perform, and the injuries to which it is ex- 

 posed. It win be proper to commence with that which is the 

 cause of m.any other diseases of the foot, and connected with al- 

 most all. 



INFLAMMATIOlir OF THE FOOT, OR ACUTE FOUNDER. 



The sensible laminaj, or fleshy plates on the front and sides of 

 the coffin-bone, being replete with blood-vessels, are, like every 

 other vascular (filled with blood-vessels) part, liable to inflamma- 

 tion, from its usual causes, and particularly from the violence with 

 which, in rapid and long-continued action, these parts are strained 

 and bruised. When battered and bruised by severe races or 

 journeys, it will be no wonder if inflammation of the over- worked 

 parts should ensue ; and the occurrence of it may probably be 

 produced, and the disease aggravated by the too prevalent absurd 

 mode of treating the animal. If a horse that has been ridden oi 

 , driven hard is suffered to stand in the cold, or if his feet are wash- 

 ed and not speedily dried, he is very likely to have " fever in the 

 feet." There is no more fruitful source of inflammation in the 

 human being, or the brute, than these sudden changes of temper- 

 ature. This has been explained as it regards grease, but it bears 

 more immediately on the point now under consideration. The 

 danger is not confined to change from heat to cold. Sudden 

 transition from cold to heat is as injurious, and therefore it is that 

 so many horses, after having been ridden far in frost and snow, 

 and placed immediately in a hot stable, and littered up to the 

 knees, are attacked by this malady. 



Sometimes there is a sudden change of inflammation from one 

 organ to another. A horse may have labored for several days 

 under evident inflammation of the lungs ; all at once that will 

 Bdbside, and the disease will appear in the feet, or inflammation 



