OBSERVATIONS ON INJURIES, ETC., AMONG ARMY HORSES. 69 
That there are many predisposing causes due to some con- 
genital or hereditary taint there can be no doubt ; if it were 
not so we should be unable to account for many narrow and 
upright, weak, flat, ribbed, fluted, and brittle hoofs that are 
to be seen every day ; all these kinds of feet do not result 
from negligence and a bad system of shoeing, neither are 
they always brought to a normal condition by due attention, 
and the best system of shoeing. Domestication, with its 
usages, requirements, and negligences, may have been the 
primary causes of those we have called hereditary, but we 
must not blame shoeing for producing such effects as we 
cannot always otherwise account for ; true, it has been the 
source of the greatest amount of mischief accruing to horses' 
feet, and it is, even in these enlightened times, a system that 
requires careful supervision in the army as well as out of it. 
Among other predisposing causes, change of weather and 
climate must be classed ; a change from heat and dryness to 
coldness and moisture was found to immediately precede 
many cases of sandcrack in troop horses as well as chargers, 
particularly in the latter, in December and January ; the 
same thing occurred the following year, and many of the 
same horses were again affected. The exciting cause in these 
cases was a sharp gallop over hard ground. Most cases are 
noticed after work or parade, some come in lame and bleeding, 
others lame, but not bleeding. One horse had a sandcrack 
on every foot, another had them on the inside and outside 
the same foot ; but, as is known, the inner quarter of the 
hoof is the usual seat. We believe sandcracks have resulted 
from a violent twist or wrench, judging from collateral 
evidences. 
It is not uncommon to see the skin at the front of the 
coronet of the fore feet cleanly separated from the horn, the 
extent of the lesion varying according to the severity of the 
accident or injury. Such has occurred when a horse has 
struck his toe against the ground and thrown the whole 
weight of his body on the front of the foot whilst in a flexed 
position. A gun or waggon when passing quickly over the 
upper part of the hoof has produced a like effect. Unless the 
skin is injured, lameness and bleeding are seldom observed. 
Rest sets all right in a fortnight ; sometimes it is necessary to 
remove the detached horn. Rest would also suffice for the 
cure or relief of sandcracks, but subsequent to fomentations 
or poultices, when required, mild stimulants to the coronet 
will expedite a cure, and perhaps tend to the secretion of an 
improved quality of horn. Firing the hoof under and driving 
a nail horizontally through the lesion add injury to injury. 
