I04 Veterinary Medicine. 



abrasion or laceration of the surface by the dried hardened mass, 

 the wounds inflicted by the sharp edges of broken stones (slaty, 

 shaly ) mixed in the mud, coarse sand even in the mud, broken glass 

 sharp metal, or nails or the strong stubble of grain or weeds. 

 Caustics act in a similar way. Inflammation of the heel pads by 

 traveling on hard roads, or standing on wooden, stone or cement 

 floors. Overgrowth of the hoof — above all in sheep, throwing 

 undue strain on the laminae, imprisoning the hard plates of the 

 sole to act as foreign bodies, and causing incurving of the hoof- 

 wall till it presses painfully on the sole. Section or detachment 

 of the horn by violence or bruises under heavy weights (wheels). 

 Constitutional disorders which concentrate or localize in the feet. 

 Of the latter an overfeed of grain, ground feed, maize, malt, 

 brewers and distillers grains, linseed cake, colza-cake, sesam- 

 cake, peanut-cake, wheat, rye, rice, and cottonseed meal have 

 been specially incriminated. Again inflammation of the feet 

 will follow internal disorders and infections, especially difiicult 

 parturition, abortion, retained afterbirth and diarrhoea. Pools, 

 and mudholes are ready channels of infection. Among pastures 

 those with long grasses, which drag through the interdigital 

 spaces of the infected and sound in succession, favor transmission. 

 Dense aggregations of sheep or cattle, as in fairs, shows, stock- 

 yards, steamboats, ferryboats, chutes, runways, loading banks, 

 cars, sheep wagons, sheephouses, folds, etc., tend to distribute 

 and concentrate the affection. Outbreaks on Atlantic steamers 

 show that the germ may be carried on the sound feet, while its 

 pathogenesis is favored by the softening of the hoofs among the 

 heating manure, the strain thrown upon the feet by the move- 

 ments of the vessel, the warmth developed by lying in a huddle 

 with the feet under them, and perhaps the dry, heating food to 

 which they are subjected. It has been noted that the ventral 

 aspect of the body, resting on infected feet during recumbency, 

 has become infected, and the resulting necrotic patch has been 

 promptly attacked by the gad fly so that the sheep perished from 

 the larvae. The blocking or inflammation of the interdigital bi- 

 flex canal in the sheep has long been charged with causing foot- 

 rot, and the very presence of the delicate lining of this duct is an 

 invitation to the microbe, [and like other parts when inflamed, it is 

 specially favorable to the microbian activity. The entrance of 



