LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
64 
tive parts, the consequence of which is the issue of a discharge 
afterwards from them not very dissimilar to frush. 
Heat OF Stable, and perhaps foulness of stable as well, 
contribute to the production of frush ; operating either through 
the general system, or locally on the foot or frog itself. Any 
thing that will dispose to heat of foot, such as lack of moisture 
to the hoof, standing for hours together upon dry and heated 
litter in a hot atmosphere, or standing in dung and urine, may 
tend to produce this feverish state of foot ; while, at the same time, 
the latter may exert some effect in irritating the frog itself. Cole- 
man used to say, he could at any time create a frush in twenty- 
four hours, by putting on a high-heeled shoe, so as to raise the 
frog off the ground ; and placing the horse at the same time in a 
hot and impure stable, where he would be standing all the while 
upon heated litter, saturated with dung, urine, &c. Here, it is 
evident, the Professor depended for the success of his experi- 
ment upon more agents than one. There were in simultaneous 
operation heat and non-pressure, both tending to contraction ; and 
heat and moisture, and it is probable pestilential vapour from the 
horse’s bed as well, to assist in the production of frush. 
Continued Exposure to Wet and Dirt, notwithstanding 
the frog be all the while subject to pressure — nay ! the horse 
even be wearing tips at the time — will in many feet produce 
frush. Horses returning from low and marshy pasture, or from 
mucky strawyard, in the spring of the year, after having been 
out all the winter, and particularly after a prevalence of wet 
weather, are extremely likely to come into their stables with 
frushes. In this case frush is caused by a softening and decay, 
and partial solution, of the horn of the cleft, whereby the sensi- 
tive structures become annoyed by the contact of wet and dirt, 
and, in consequence, take on anormal action. It is possible for 
frush to be engendered in the same manner within the stable, 
not only, as has already been mentioned, from horses continually 
standing for hours together with their hind feet in dung and 
urine, but from their fore feet being injudiciously over-much 
plastered with wet and irritating stopping, such as clay and cow- 
dung, &c. 
But a Frush may have a Constitutional Cause. — 
That which produces eruptive skins and swelled legs may pro- 
duce frushes. Horses high fed, full of blood, and in fat, gross, 
and plethoric condition, and particularly young horses, making 
flesh fast, will now and then be so disposed. Indeed, idle or 
laid-up horses in general may be said to have this propensity. 
Nor are such cases to be set right again without attention to 
the system — by giving physic, alteratives, &c., as well as to 
the feet. 
