362 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
fear no plan of treatment of the kind with any prospect of success 
offers itself to our notice. M. Bouley, after finding fault, com- 
mendably enough, with our destruction of tissues, when, as he 
says, the error is not physical but functional only, recommends 
the following — certainly comparatively humane — method : — 
French Mode of Treatment. — The cankered foot to 
be cut down to the extent required, and then to have such a shoe 
properly fitted as will admit of the requisite dressing and pres- 
sure. All loose portions of horn to be removed, without, if 
possible, making the parts bleed or wounding such as are sound ; 
though nothing is to be allowed to save the complete denudation 
of the diseased parts. This done, any very exuberant fungus, 
likely to resist pressure, is to be excised ; after which the 
entire diseased surface is to be covered with a thick layer of 
tar, supported by pledgets of tow, and splints with bandages 
calculated to give the requisite pressure. And this dressing is 
to be daily renewed. Perseverance in such measures is en- 
joined for several days, taking care at every dressing to remove 
all horny matter anywise unsound, and to cover the places over 
afresh with tar ; under which mode of procedure we shall, says 
M. Bouley, every day perceive healthy action spreading, to the 
gradual diminution and decay of the disease. Nor do we doubt 
his assertion, when we read, further on, that in the most com- 
mon cases he is in the habit of using, in combination with the 
tar, such agents as the undiluted sulphuric, nitric, and hydro- 
chloric acids, concentrated solution of caustic potass, quick lime, 
the caustic ointment of Solleysel, the caustic paste of M. Plasse, 
&c. &c. M. Bouley adds, that, with the indispensables of time 
and attention, such treatment will prove successful, from two or 
three months being required for the cure. 
Discovering in the foregoing account of treatment nothing that 
need divert us from our accustomed plan of action, we proceed 
to a detail of measures which have, not in our hands more than 
in hundreds and thousands of others, turned out the best adapted 
for the cure of canker, in as short a time and with as much 
certainty as the nature of the particular case will admit. 
Before the Treatment of a Case of Canker be 
UNDERTAKEN, it becomes the duty of the veterinary surgeon, in 
order that he may guard himself against any expression of blame 
or dissatisfaction on the part of his patient’s master, to calculate 
in his own mind the probability of cure as well as the time likely 
to be required for it. The extent and malignity of the disease, 
the duration of it, the age and value of the horse, should all be 
taken into the account, lest it be found, in the end, that the 
doctor’s bill and the keep of the patient while under treatment, 
overbalance the animal’s value. Nor must it be forgotten, 
