198 HARDENING AND EXPANDING THE HOOF. 
tion which, for the sake of the generous animal, as well as for the 
public good, I am solicitous it should obtain. 
You ask for a more minute description of the case of His 
Excellency Major-General Napier’s horse “ Farmer.” In conse- 
quence of the state of health of his distinguished owner, who is 
now passing through one of those periods of acute suffering to 
which the wounds he received in his country’s service make him 
frequently liable, I regret I have not had the opportunity to ask, 
for what his kind treatment on other occcasions induces me to 
believe he would not have refused me, viz., the favour of his own 
testimony to the nature and extent of the difficulties I had to con- 
tend with, as well as to the completeness of the cure. 
For the last two years the horse has been rather shaky on his 
fore-legs, frequently dropping, and sometimes decidedly lame in 
the near fore-leg. The foot, externally, looked well and healthy ; 
and it did not appear to me, as far as I could judge by the manner 
of his going, that the affection lay in the lamina or the navicular 
bone. As he had splints, which, from their proximity to the liga- 
ment, might possibly have to do with the lameness, I applied a 
strong liquid blister, which I rubbed in under the hair, putting on 
linen bandages kept constantly moist with black wash. With 
this treatment, and a fortnight’s rest, he went much better. If 
worked, however, the lameness would return. Subsequently, a 
decided contraction was evidently taking place under the coronet, 
and he went digging on his toes. We had him shod with leather 
soles, but without success. 1 then applied Mr. Bracy Clark’s 
shoe, with the heels a little turned up. I tried the three-quarter 
nailing, with leather under the shoe, leaving the centre of the foot 
uncovered. Notwithstanding all the precaution we could take, the 
evil increased — the heels became very narrow, and the bars ver- 
tical, so as to make him very unsafe to ride. He was then put to 
stand in a bath. I expanded the foot rather more than a quarter 
of an inch. This was followed by a discharge from the frog, which 
circumstance was matter of no surprise to me, for I have known, 
with the application of warm water, a discharge ensue as abundant 
as would proceed from a frog seton. This, of course, tends greatly 
to relieve the inflammation of the foot. He was subjected to three 
additional expansions, and from that time to the present he has 
gone perfectly safe and sound. 
1 am happy to say he continues to give great satisfaction, and 
is the subject of astonishment to those who were cognizant of the 
state of comparative uselessness to which the disease of the foot 
had reduced him. 
In answer to your own inquiry, and those of my other corre- 
