518 
PATHOLOGY OF LAMINITIS. 
covered with bags filled with soft hay, for him to rest his 
hind quarters upon ; this is in addition to the breeching. 
Slinging for the hind legs I consider next to useless, as we 
are liable to injure the soft parts of the abdomen, in our 
attempts to remove the weight from off the hind feet. 
I advocate prompt and effectual bloodletting from the 
coronary plexus, and repeat it in six or twelve hours, and 
again and again, if found requisite. Should the pulse falter 
before you have taken away the quantity of blood you in- 
tended, or, in other words, the patient will not tolerate 
bloodletting, it is always a good omen. 
I remove the shoes, but do not pare the soles, although I 
do not believe that in leaving thick soles you in any way 
prevent the sinking of the soles. Tepid water, and warm 
poultices, and physic, are to be employed, and this latter you 
must repeat, in gentle doses, occasionally during the treatment. 
I have had some horses placed for six or eight hours a day, 
and that for days together, in a running brook. In other cases 
I have caused a stream of warm water to be poured over the 
legs and feet, by means of two india-rubber tubes proceeding 
from a bucket suspended near the animal, and which was 
kept replenished with hot water; and this continued for days 
and nights together. In others, again, 1 have had the 
soles moderately thinned, nice soft stuffing applied, and 
leather soles tacked on without shoes, using small, flat-headed 
nails; but generally, as the sequel proved, all was in vain. 
I formerly used the frog-seton in several cases, but did not 
succeed with it. Nearly twenty years ago, I was induced by 
the owner, although I protested against it at the time, to 
blister the coronets with a strong blister, within the first 
twenty to twenty-four hours of the attack, and, contrary 
to my expectations, it was attended with the most beneficial 
effects. My general plan of treatment, in very severe attacks, 
is, after having for a week or two used depletive and 
ameliorating treatment, to blister even a dozen of times in 
some cases, often with the biniodide of mercury, or the tartar- 
emetic ointment, and ultimately firing; after this a six 
months’ run at grass is allowed. But in such protracted cases 
the result is generally unsatisfactory. In one case, as an 
experiment, I unnerved a horse after twelve months’ treat- 
ment ; but I shall never unnerve another where the laminae 
are affected, and the horny and sensitive laminae are disunited. 
I am now come to this conclusion, that whatever our after 
treatment may be, it is pretty nearly all as one ; since it is of 
little avail (in severe cases I mean), if we neglect seizing the 
first and only chance of a complete restoration to health, — 
