DISEASES, DEFECTS, ETC. 



dangerous 



being the result of neglected or bad tread or overreach (r) ; 

 but it may be the consequence of any wound in any part of 

 the foot. In the natural process of ulceration matter is 

 thrown out from the wound ; this precedes the actual 

 healing of the part. The matter which is thrown out in 

 wounds of the foot is usually pent up there, and increases 

 in quantity, and thus urges its way in every direction ; it 

 forces the fleshy little plates of the coffin bone from the 

 horny ones of the crust, or the horny sole from the fleshy 

 sole, or even eats deeply into the internal parts of the foot. 

 These ^^pes or sinuses run in every direction, and constitute 

 the essence oi quittor («). 



On the back part of the leg are sometimes excrescences Eat-tails. 

 called by farriers rat- tails, from the appearance they give 

 the hair. They generally yield to mild treatment (t), and 

 as they are unlikely, from their situation, to impede the 

 natural usefulness of the horse, it is only in a bad case that 

 they can be considered unsoundness. 



Rearing, which is unprovoked by the bruising and Kearing. 

 laceration of the mouth, is an inveterate and 

 bad habit (m), and a vice. 



In the case of Couch v. Culbreth (a;) it was held, by the Rheumatism. 

 Supreme Court of South Carolina, that in questions of 

 unsoundness, where the disease is chronic, like rheumatism, 

 it is not necessary to show that the symptoms existed at 

 the time of sale, for subsequent incidents and appearances 

 may show that the disease existed before the sale, although 

 the symptoms had not then been observed. 



Ringbone commences in one of the pasterns, and usually Ringbone, 

 about the pastern joint ; but it rapidly spreads and involves 

 not only the pastern bones, but the cartilages of the foot. 

 The pastern first becomes connected together by bone, 

 instead of ligament, and thence results what is called an 

 anchylosed or fixed joint. Its motion is lost, and the disease 

 proceeds to the cartilages of the foot and to the union 

 between the lower pastern and the coffin and navicular 

 bones ; the motion of these parts is impeded or lost, and 

 the whole of this part of the foot becomes one mass of 

 spongy bone. When the bony tumour is small and on one 

 side only, there is little or no lameness, yet from the action 

 of the foot, and the stress upon the part, the disease has a 



[r) Overreach, ante, p. 87. 

 (s) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," 

 302. 



{t) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," 



275 



(m) Lib. U. K. "The Horse," 

 337. 



(x) 11 Rich. Law (S. C), 9. 



