SAND-fKACK. 317 



meaL The poultice should be wetted severa^ times and changed once ^ 

 day, and the bleeding may be repeated in the course of a few days, if re- 

 quired. The poultice is to be continued for eight or ten days, and then, 

 wheu the utmost benefit has been derived from it that it is capable of 

 affording, we may hare recourse to counter -irritation. 



The importance of venesection in every case of navicular disease must 

 be apparent to every one, for there can be no case requiring treatment but 

 what must be attended with some degree of inflammation, and in some 

 cases the injury may be confined to inflammation alone. Where we have 

 reason to infer that such is the case we may indeed confine om' treatment to 

 the bleeding and poulticing. The benefit of poultice is inferior only to 

 blood-letting. It softens the horn, changing it from a liard, dry, and almost 

 inelastic substance, to a soft, yielding, and elastic materiai The degree of 

 paring that may be necessary must depend upon the alteration of structure 

 that has taken place in the foot. 



Having pushed our antiphlogistic (tending to reduce inflammation) treat- 

 ment as far as we well can, we may next seek the aid of counter-irritation. 

 Shall we blister the coronet, or insert a frog seton ? The latter is, I thuik, 

 m every respect preferable ; we create artificial inflammation and suppura- 

 tion very near the seat of the disease, and we may keep this up almost as 

 long as we please ; a month, however, of active suppuration is generally long 

 enough. The only objection to the seton is that the horse must be kept in 

 the stable ; he cannot be turned out, or into a soft, moist place during the 

 time it remains in the foot. Before the seton is inserted, a slioe should be 

 placed on the foot, nailed on the outside quarter only, which will much 

 assist the expansion of the foot. By the judicious employment of the treat- 

 ment we have recommended, varied or modified according to the nature 

 of the case, we may in many instances effect a cure ; but a love of truth 

 obliges us to confess, that in a majority of cases, taking them as they come, 

 no treatment will succeed. In chronic cases of navicular disease, in which 

 there is no probability of effecting a cure, and but Uttle of relieving the ani- 

 mal to any considerable extent, we have to determine whether we shall 

 work the animal lame (if he is able to work at all), or remove sensation 

 from the feet by the operation of neurotomy. It is a matter of much con- 

 sequence that when a horse is submitted to the preceding course of treat- 

 ment, every chance should be given it by allowing a long rest, viz., from 

 two to four months. 



SAND-CRACK. 



This, as its name imports, is a arack or division of the hooi 

 from above downward, and into which sand and dirt are too apt 

 to insinuate themselves. It is so called, because it most fre- 

 quently occurs in sandy districts, the heat of the sand applied to 

 the feet giving them a disposition to crack. It occurs both in 

 the fore and the hind feet. In the fore feet it is usually found 

 in the inner quarter (see g. Fig. 41), but occasionally in the outer 

 quarter, because there is the principal stress or effort towards 

 expansion in the foot, and the inner quarter is weaker than the 

 outer. In the hind feet the crack is almost invariably found in 

 the front, because in the digging of the toe into the ground in the 

 act of drawing, the principal stress is in front. 



This is a most serious defect. It- indicates a brittleness of the 



