248 DISEASES OF THE HORSE’S FOOT 
the approaching waggon with the added weight its impetus 
gives it then pushes the animal suddenly away, leaving 
a part of his foot still fixed to the rails, or the animal him- 
self, feeling securely held, makes a sudden effort to release | 
himself, and draws his foot cleanly out of the imprisoned 
horny box. 
The author calls to mind a case in which entire removal | 
of the horn of the foot of an ox occurred through the pass-, 
ing over it of the wheel of a heavily-laden cart. It is there- 
fore quite conceivable that the same accident might occur 
to the horse. As a matter of fact, we find one case on 
record where one-half of the horny box was thus removed.* 
So far as we are able to gather, it is more a result of im- 
prisonment of the shoe than of the foot. It appears, further, 
to be always a result of the animal being newly shod, and 
the clinches firmly secured; so much so that it would be 
probable, with imperfectly secured clinches, that the animal 
would draw the hoof from the clinches and the shoe rather 
than the foot from its horny covering. 
Therefore, as the author of one of the cases we shall 
afterwards relate suggests, it should be proposed as a pre- 
ventive that the shoe-nails of animals regularly engaged in 
work on the metals should not be clinched in the regulation 
manner, but should have their points merely screwed off, 
and the nails afterwards rasped level with the wall. 
These cases are particularly interesting as illustrating 
the rapid manner in which a new hoof is afterwards formed, 
and the way in which the exposed sensitive lamine take 
their share in adding to, though not forming the bulk of, 
the horn of the wall. 
From the cases we are able to record it will be seen that 
this accident need not be looked upon as fatal, nor the 
injury itself beyond hope of repair. Dependent largely 
upon the temperament of the animal, the amount of pain 
that is caused, and the way in which the animal bears it, 
recovery may be looked for. Even from the very com- 
mencement of the accident, however, the pain may be so 
* Veterinary Record, vol. xiii., p. 129. 
