LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
65 
SYMPTOMS. — Horse persons in general are so familiar with 
the appearance of frush, that any description of symptoms seems 
almost supererogatory. The cleft of the frog either simply 
exhibits a moisture, as though humidity exuded through the 
substance of the horn, and this moisture emits a peculiar noisome 
odour, especially recognised by the introduction of the finger 
into the cleft ; or perhaps fluid may be made apparent by 
squeezing the frog and the heels together, to cause it to exude 
from the cleft ; or else the cleft itself is in an actual state of 
raggedness and rottenness, issuing matter with stench, but too 
palpable, amid the ruins. When this is the case, farriers deno- 
minate it “ a running frush.” At other times when the disease 
is farther advanced, and particularly when wet and dirt have 
been the cause of the frush, the entire cleft exhibits “ a mass 
of corruption.” Nor does the disease now' any longer confine 
its ravages to the cleft, but extends them throughout the sub- 
stance of the frog ; the matter insinuating itself between the 
fibres of the horn, under-running the substance of the frog from 
heel to toe, and along the sides as well, and so laying the 
foundation for complete destruction of the body. In the inci- 
pient stages of the disease the discharge is ichorous , i. e. thin, 
acrid, and serous in its nature ; afterwards it turns to purulent 
matter, though by its colour it would rarely be recognised as 
such, owing to its being stained of a dingy, dark or sooty hue, 
by the decaying horn which becomes eroded by and partially 
dissolved in it. In the worst stages of frush, when large 
and open chasms of rottenness and corruption exist in the frogs 
of many horses standing together, the stench arising from their 
offensive odour is so great that the very atmosphere of the 
stable is contaminated by it ; and the smell thereof so percepti- 
ble, that any person acquainted with it pronounces at once, on 
entering the stable, what is going on amiss there. 
Frush affects the hind as well as the fore Feet, 
and in this circumstance differs from most other foot diseases. 
And the reason why it does so appears obvious, when we come 
to consider how much the hind frogs are apt to be raised off the 
ground by shoes with calkins, and how very much exposed 
the hind feet are, in stables in general, to wet and dirt from the 
excretions. Still, we more frequently find frushes in the fore 
than in the hind feet, owing to the application of causes occa- 
sioning contraction in them whose power is counteracted from 
exerting the same influence in the hind feet. 
The Pathology of Frush will require for its explanation 
a reference to the physiology of the part affected, which we 
have found to be the cleft of the sensitive frog. This part of 
the foot receives into its cavity the obverse side of the cleft of 
