LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
490 
bing the hoof of a couple of stays operating against the closure 
of its heels, conduces to its contraction. Nature gave the bars 
as a sort of buttress against either heel of the hoof to oppose its 
drawing inward, while the frog, placed between the heels, is 
operating in forcing them asunder; consequently, if the bars be 
removed, the expansive or counter-active powers of the hoof 
lose an agent they can in many cases ill afford to be de- 
prived of. 
The contracting Effects of Heat and Drought on 
the hoof may be guarded against by keeping the horse’s stall 
free from fermentable litter, while the atmosphere of the stable 
is maintained cool and unpolluted. The practice, also, of stop- 
ping horses’ feet — or, what I believe to be better, of wearing 
swabs in the stable — will likewise tend to guard against the 
contracting effects of these agents. 
We now come to the 
Treatment of contracted Feet. — The first thing to de- 
termine, whenever a case of contraction is submitted to us for 
treatment, will be, whether it be one of the pure or mixed 
description. If the former, the horse not therefore lame, and 
his feet be submitted to our inspection simply from the appre- 
hension of his becoming lame, and the contraction be on this 
account desired to be removed, the simple and best means of 
doing so will be to substitute tips for the horse’s ordinary 
shoes, and to order that he stand with his contracted feet in cold 
water — or, what is better, in a bed of clay — for a couple of 
hours once or twice a-day, he being allowed to lie down as 
usual at night. By such a simple plan of treatment as this will 
his hoofs, give sufficiency of time for Nature to carry out her 
operations, become restored to their pristine condition. 
Coleman’s Treatment. — So much attention as the late 
Professor Coleman bestowed upon the foot of the horse, and so 
much practice as he had on contracted feet in particular, it would 
ill become us, on the present occasion, to pass over what he has 
said on this part of our subject. “ There are various modes” — 
I quote from his ‘ Lectures’ — by which contracted feet, in pro- 
cess of time, may be brought back to their original form, unless 
there happens to be a diseased frog. I do not mean to assert 
that the heels cannot be forced out by any other means than the 
frog ; but I mean to say that this is the only means of effecting it 
without the aid of mechanical force. Perhaps there is no better 
mode than this of exhibiting the functions of the frog ; for you 
find by giving it pressure you expand the quarters, since 
thereby you not only broaden the frog itself, but you at the same 
time give the new-formed horn an inclination to grow outwards. 
The expansion of the hoof is accomplished by the pressure up- 
