LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
705 
fully assured that it is the cause of oedema and grease in a great 
number of post horses so treated. I can at the present moment 
point to a stable where the coarser bred and more wiry coated horses 
are all so affected, the hair having become more like bristles. In 
these cases it is preferable to take out by friction or hand rubbing 
merely what is loose, the hand being sprinkled with powdered resin 
to render it slightly adhesive. 
The symptoms of cracked heels are heat, and in white heels, 
redness, pain, and swelling; if the inflammation is not quickly 
subdued, we have in some cases pustules forming in the heels, 
and in others simply a crack or cracks, from which issues an 
oily discharge ; if the cracks are deep we may probably have large 
sloughs coming away which will make it a tedious case, and cause 
great lameness, with a greater or lesser amount of constitutional 
disturbance. The treatment before any crack is visible is hot water 
fomentations, and bran poultices, with a little oatmeal sprinkled 
amongst it, arnica lotion, and a dose of physic ; diet to consist of 
bran mashes, grass, boiled turnips, raw potatoes, or carrots, &c. 
“ When the cracks appear the treatment must be different ; if the parts 
are inclined to slough, a dry poultice, half bran and half oatmeal, to 
the wound will prove almost a specific for bringing on a healthy 
action, the oatmeal having a most surprising effect in reducing the 
inflammatory symptoms, the angry red appearance of the edges of 
the wound »and the pain. Should this, however, not suffice, a mix- 
ture of calomel and lime water (blackwash), or a sprinkling of 
calomel itself will soon suffice, with a high-heeled shoe to prevent 
a too great extension of the skin of the pastern. Afterwards treat 
as a common wound, with digestives and astringents, as the case may 
require. Where there are hard segs in the heels, counter irritation 
to produce sloughing is necessary. Dose of physic and diet as 
before, with an occasional diuretic. 
We now come to the consideration of the heading of this paper, 
and when I pronounce to you the title — “ Grease,” I ask you, 
Gentlemen, what is it? for I can assure you none of the authorities 
I have consulted have answered me this question to my own satis- 
faction. I want to know from our numerous and talented micro- 
scopists, the various changes which occur in the structure of the 
sebaceous glands, hair, follicles, &c., &c., in the transition from 
health to that abnormal and unsightly condition in which we are 
accustomed to see the limb. I have not finished, Gentlemen, by an 
appeal to our anatomists and physiologists only, but I desire to 
know from our analytical chemists the various changes occurring in 
the nature of the discharge in the various stages of this disease ; 
I look upon it as requiring not only for its cure but for its preven- 
tion a treatment based upon scientific principles, which I am sorry 
to say we are even to-day in want of. In the midst of our sorrow, 
however, we have reason to be joyful at the many subjects which are 
daily emerging from the mists which have hitherto obscured them, 
to the brightness of perennial day, let us hope that the subject we 
are at present interested in may be one added to the number. 
