294 
PERIPLANTAR SHOE IN CHRONIC LAMIN1TIS. 
disease. A more intimate acquaintance with their structure 
and habits has, however, removed much of this prejudice, 
and almost every one is now ready to acknowledge what a 
weighty influence they have in inducing diseased conditions, 
both in the animal and vegetable world 
Fungi, therefore, must be considered to play an import- 
ant part of the history of the higher plants as in that of the 
animal economy, and hence their attentive study may be ex- 
pected to yield valuable information, both to the vegetable 
and animal physiologist. 
UPON THE PERIPLANTAR SHOE IN CHRONIC 
LAMINITIS. 
By M. Clayton, Veterinary Surgeon, Paris. 
For several months you have published in your valuable 
Journal a great number of articles concerning laminitis and 
its treatment. The majority of the working members of the 
profession have expressed their views upon the subject. We 
believe your columns are at the present moment closed to 
any further discussion ; nevertheless, we trust you will not 
refuse to insert the following few remarks. 
To discuss the general value of the system is not our 
intention ; we should say it is beyond our power — want of 
experience being our excuse. Our object is to draw attention 
to one point only, viz. the value of the periplantar shoe in 
chronic laminitis. 
The opinion we profess, and which we desire to com- 
municate to the members of your corporation, is far from a 
new one. Indeed, it has been, and is still, maintained by 
many eminent practitioners in this country since the in- 
vention de la ferrure Charlier. 
Laminitis generally ends in a chronic state ; the anterior 
part of the sole (toe) becomes convex, and consequently 
protrudes more or less over the inferior border of the crust. 
It little matters, for the subject we are examining, whether 
the fall of the bone behind downwards is due to the conical- 
shaped mass of horny matter comprised between the inferior 
face of the crust and the anterior face of the os pedis, or to 
the traction on the part of the flexor tendons, as an honorable 
author lately asserted in an article published in the 
Veterinarian. 
In some cases the convexity is so prominent that the 
