194 GEBASE. — CHAPPED HEELS. 



grapes ; or, were it not for their colour, they would closely 

 resemble a full-blown cauliflower. 



At first these growths are highly sensitive, but this sensi- 

 tiveness in time becomes less and less as they become indurated, 

 insensible, cartilaginous, and even homy, which would appear 

 to be their final state. " Other changes accompany these : the 

 hair gradually falls ofi', leaving the grapes either destitute of 

 any hairs, or but very thinly beset with them, and those few in 

 a state of erection, like bristles upon a hog's back. Prom 

 such parts of the skin as remain imoccupied by grapes, and 

 from the crevices between them, issues a greasy, rancid, and 

 most ofiensive discharge, here and there mingled with blood. 

 By this time, also, the leg has acquired an enormous bulk, 

 from which circumstance alone, independently of its sore and 

 painful condition, the action of the whole limb is greatly 

 impeded."* In other cases again, the malady attacks the feet 

 of the greasy limbs ; it spreads from the heels to the frogs and 

 the soles of the feet, and is so destructive in its progress, that 

 the frog, the horny soles, and the sensitive soles become one 

 mass of rottenness, diffusing an odour " which is smelt ere it 

 is seen." 



Causes.— The causes of Grease are numerous. They are 

 of a twofold nature, viz. ; such as predispose the animal to the 

 malady ; and such as excite it. 



The predisposing causes are breed and structural peculiari- 

 ties. Coarse-bred and round-boned horses are extremely prone 

 to attacks of this nature. Clipping the hair of the heels, par- 

 ticularly during the prevalence of wet weather, or wet in 

 alternation with frost, wiU cause the heels to speedily crack and 

 inflame. The bringing up of young horses from grass, and 

 placing them at once to live upon hard food, or the feeding of 



* Percival'a Hippopathology. 



