THE 
VETERIN 
VOL. XXIV, 
No. ‘277. 
JANUARY 1851. 
Third Series, 
No. 37. 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
Ry William Percivall, M.Ii.C.S. ami V.S. 
[Continued from vol. xxiii, page G66.] 
Pumice Foot. 
By whom or on what occasion the condition of foot I am 
about to enter on the description of was first called pumice , 1 
have not been able satisfactorily to make out. Looking at the 
meaning attached to the word in our dictionaries — which is 
spume or froth — and applying this in the sense apparently the 
most natural to the case before us, it would seem as though 
pumice were intended to designate the matters which had to 
appearance been ejected or spued forth out of the homy case, 
such matters being sometimes covered with spume or froth, and, 
from that circumstance, like pumice-stone, having a porous 
aspect. Therefore, a pumice foot — or, as Blaine has it, a 
pumiced foot — denotes, in the strict sense of the word, no less 
than actual protrusion of the toe of the coffin-bone, with its 
covering of sensitive sole, through the horny sole ; though it is 
used also to signify that bulge and convexity of the latter which 
is preliminary to its rupture, and the consequent protrusion of 
the soft parts. 
The Pathology of Pumice Sole amounts then to this : — 
In consequence of inflammation in them, be that inflammation 
acute or sub-acute, the sensitive laminae, from causes which 
have already been detailed*, become detached from their union 
with the horny laminae, and the coffin-bone losing its ties of 
suspension, is pressed down by the weight upon the horny 
sole, which, unable to bear the burden thus unnaturally trans- 
mitted to it, bulges, and either immediately or some short time 
afterwards bursts, and lets the toe of the coffin-bone, with its 
covering of sensitive sole, through its breach. This, and this 
* Vol. xxiii, pp. 608-9 and 636. 
B 
VOL. XXIV. 
