LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
242 
the beginning of the present one, the annual losses to the ca- 
valry and ordnance services through canker and grease and 
glanders and periodic ophthalmia, were truly awful. Whereas, 
at the present day, army veterinary surgeons have it in their 
power proudly to boast, that such diseases are exceedingly rare ; 
some indeed all but unknown to them : so unusual is it to meet 
even with a case of grease, and so much more uncommon — and 
not very creditable — is itto encounter one of canker. Nothing can 
set in a stronger or more demonstrable light than this the utility 
of veterinary surgeons in large horse-establishments ; shewing, 
as the fact does, that their art is available no less in the cure 
than in the prevention of disease. 
Horses of coarse and heavy Breed, and particularly 
those that have much hair upon their heels, and have broad 
and flat feet, are said to be most obnoxious to canker, and I 
believe not without reason ; at the same time I think it will 
appear, as we proceed in our inquiry, that, in situations where 
it is prevalent among them, the habits of such horses have much 
influence in the production of this disease. 
The Hind Feet are oftener affected than the fore. 
This, no doubt, arises from the situation they occupy, as com- 
pared with those of the fore feet, in the stall or stable. While 
the hind feet are all day long, or a great part of the day, ex- 
posed to wet, and that of a stimulant character, from the lodg- 
ments of dung and urine, and from that cause alone are apt to 
engender frush, something may be said of their increased 
liability to diseases in general, such as frush and canker and 
grease ; in consequence of the greater distance they are situate 
from the centre of circulation. 
The Seat of Canker, ordinarily, is the frog of the foot, 
and, as has been remarked already, of the hind frog in par- 
ticular. If allowed, however, to progress, the disease is not 
long before it spreads from the frog to the sole of the foot. 
But frog and sole may both be in a state of disease, and yet 
the horse, while standing before us, shew no sign of ailment 
until his foot be lifted off the ground. From the sole, the 
disease, continuing to spread, extends around the circum- 
ference of the toe and quarters, at the place of junction of 
the laminae with the sensitive sole ; and here it is that the 
fungous growths appear to flourish with a peculiar luxuriance, 
which we shall find, as we proceed, arises out of the na- 
ture of the tissues existing at this particular part. The fore 
feet are not often cankered without one or both of the hind par- 
ticipating in the disease. Nay, it not, then, unfrequently hap- 
pens that all four feet turn out affected ; and, when this is the 
case, it proves extremely difficult and tiresome to get rid of the 
