LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
366 
A “ sharp” dressing of this description will be likely — 
especially when extensively used — to excite a good deal of pain 
in the foot, and this may be followed by some amount of con- 
stitutional irritation ; indeed, so touching is the appeal made from 
such effects sometimes, that, for humanity’s sake, if not from a 
sense of danger, it becomes necessary to remove the dressings, 
and immerse the cankered foot in a warm bath, succeeded by a 
poultice, and to give the animal some medicine, should he not 
have already had any : I say “ already,” because it ought to 
have been mentioned, that, in all such cases, it is an excellent 
practice to administer in the first instance a full dose of cathartic 
medicine, which, coming into operation about the time that the 
sluoghing is at its height, is likely to be attended with the best 
results. 
Should nothing call for the removal of the dressing, however, 
it ought to remain undisturbed for two, if not for three, days, 
depending upon the circumstance of the horse having been in 
the stable the while, or at work ; for the process of sloughing 
is found to go on quicker under work or motion than while at 
rest. So that work, of the kind that has been recommended, 
provided the ground be not wet or muddy, so far from being 
objectionable, will be found beneficial, whenever the patient is 
able to take it. When the dressing comes to be removed, the 
aspect of the cankered parts will be found completely changed. 
There will remain comparatively little or no stench ; and the 
fungus, which before was porous and full of ichorous oozings, 
and possessed a degree of transparency from the discharges 
standing in globules upon its surface, has now turned dead 
white, and crumbles away or peels off under friction like so 
much milk-curd ; while the sinuses along the sides of the frog 
and bars, from which issued more discharge than from any where 
else, appear dried up. This, which may be regarded as an 
amended condition of parts, in contradistinction to that state of 
the diseased foot, in wdiich the dressings come off soaked with 
the discharges, must not, however, be suffered to delude us into 
a hope that no repetition of caustic will be necessary. Caustics 
or escharotics, in some form, will be required so long as any 
fungus, or disposition to engender fungus, remains, and until the 
clefts and crevices are not only dried up, but present at their 
bottom red granulating surfaces, with clear white borders of 
sound though soft horn. 
A Second and a Third Caustic Dressing may be called 
for, though, having reference of course to the nature and in- 
tensity of the particular case, some modification may be re- 
quired in the application of the dressing as well as in the 
dressing itself. There may be only certain parts which now 
call for the strongest corrective ; or, we may choose to employ 
