424 DISEASES OF THE HORSE’S FOOT 
Treatment—(a) Preventive.—Seeing that many of these 
cases have their starting-point in stabs or penetrating 
wounds of the sole, we shall be concerned first with a con- 
sideration of the correct treatment to be adopted when we 
know the wound to have reached the articulation. 
Only too frequently the treatment practised is that of 
poulticing. In other portions of this work we have pointed 
out the advantages that a continued antiseptic bathing has 
over the application of a poultice, the greater readiness with 
which the solution comes into contact with the deeper parts 
of the wound, and the far greater chance there is of main- 
taining water in an antiseptic condition than there is 
of keeping a poultice in the-same state. There is no 
doubt, that in this case also, the cold or warm antiseptic 
bath is to be preferred to the poultice. It is questionable, 
however, whether even the bath is sufficient for our purpose 
here. We have in this case a deep punctured wound, and 
a wound that in every probability is infected with the 
organisms of pus or of putrefaction. It is a wound, more- 
over, which is likely to impede the thorough access to it of 
the solution in which the foot is fomented, on account of the 
flakes of coagulated fibrin which fill it. 
The most rational treatment, therefore, if we get to the 
case early enough, is to irrigate the wound freely with a 
solution of carbolic acid in water (1 in 20), or with a solution 
of perchloride of mercury (1 in 1,000), injected by means of 
a glass syringe, or the pattern of syringe devised for quittor. 
This injecting should be done thoroughly, and by that we 
mean that several syringefuls of the solution should be 
injected, the joint after each injection being manipulated 
so as to distribute the solution as far as possible over it. 
When this is done the opening in the sole may be plugged 
with a little perchloride of mercury, or, better still, with a 
little piece of tow saturated with a concentrated solution of 
perchloride of mercury or a solution of iodoform in alcohol: 
and an antiseptic pad of tow or lint placed over all. The 
foot should then be bandaged and encased in a boot or 
sacking protective. The bandage should be removed daily 
