LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
63 
alive to all this. He argued, that the frog, being made to bear 
pressure, must receive it, or fall into a state of degeneracy and 
disease, pressure to the frog being a means of counteracting con- 
traction. The most convincing and satisfactory proof we can 
have of the salutariness of pressure to the frog, is the state of 
the organ in those feet in which it has been exposed to pres- 
sure from tread upon the ground, contrasted with its condition 
in feet in which it has been removed out of the way of pressure. 
In the one case, the frog is bold and prominent and sound ; 
in the other, shrunk and shrivelled and frushy. But some- 
thing besides pressure is wanting to preserve the full normal 
state of the organs, as is shewn by the frog in the natural or 
unshod foot, as compared with the frog of the foot that has 
been for some years shod, albeit upon the best of principles. 
The latter may have been all along maintained in a state of 
soundness, and yet it will not bear comparison with the former. 
This does not arise from lack of pressure to the frog, but from 
habitual constriction of the shoe upon the foot. Perhaps nothing 
more strikingly evinces the truth of this than the wearing of 
tips. With the heels left, as they are in tips, at liberty, at the 
same time that pressure is given to the frog to the uttermost, 
the organ is not only maintained full and perfect, but may, by 
such means, even after its degeneracy, be restored to its original 
normal condition of expansion. Light blood horses, with feet 
rather oval than circular, and that go near the ground, are most 
prone to contraction and frush. And when the frogs — of such 
horses especially — are pared away, as they are too apt injuriously 
to be by the smith, contraction both of frog and foot goes on with 
redoubled force, in consequence of the counter-operation of that 
body being entirely annihilated. Leaving the heels high when 
the horse is shod, or shoeing with thick or high-heeled shoes, 
has precisely the same effect : in fine, every mode of shoeing 
or paring the foot which, directly or indirectly, deprives the frog 
of its natural bearing and pressure upon the ground, must be 
regarded as a predisposing cause of frush, contraction in such 
cases being the excitant. Not content with cutting away the 
frog, that they may give it a shape pleasing to their own eye, 
however injurious to the horse, farriers will very often, at the 
same time, what they call “ clean out” the cleft. This means 
not merely removing any appearance of ruggedness and dirt 
there may be, but making a fresh or “ clean” chasm in it, which 
must necessarily prove a harbour for more dirt, and probably 
will allow of its still deeper insinuation into the cleft, thus giving 
origin to irritation and frush. In addition to which I may men- 
tion, en passant , farriers have an offensive habit of grooving along 
the sides of the frogs, and often to that depth to graze the sensi- 
