PATHOLOGY AND GENERAL TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 65 
grow too long, or the heels being first raised by a high-heeled shoe, 
and that suddenly changed for a shoe with thin heels,” are all 
causes which, says Professor Coleman, put the sesamoids on the 
stretch, and, on occasions, do so, no doubt, to the injury of their 
ligamentary connexions. There is not, however, so much harm 
done in this way as people in general imagine. Certainly, art 
cannot more insult nature than by suddenly and unpreparedly 
altering the habitual condition'of any part of the body ; and were a 
person to set about to produce lameness, perhaps he could hardly 
resort to a more effectual expedient than that of momentarily chang- 
ing the relative position of the parts composing the fetlock and pas- 
tern joints, either from an upright to an oblique, or from an oblique 
to a straight position ; indeed, were the surface upon which the 
horse treads like that of the table upon which we are writing, level 
and unyielding, injury might be certain to result. But, as matters 
stand, in the first place, there is almost always more or less yielding 
of the ground under the horse’s feet to counteract the effects of this 
unnatural bearing of parts, and, in the second, there is inherent in 
the parts themselves a power of adjustment, sufficient, we believe, 
on all ordinary occasions, to ward off injury to them, until such 
time as they shall be able to accommodate themselves to their new 
situations, or even, for a time, while the horse is going upon what 
may be compared to the table, viz. wood-pavement. We do not deny 
the mischief that may accrue from injudicious heightening or low- 
ering of the heels of the foot by shoeing; we only have less appre- 
hension of the consequences, on account of the yielding nature of 
the ground and the adjusting power of the parts themselves, than 
appear to be entertained by horse people in general. 
ON THE PATHOLOGY AND GENERAL TREATMENT 
OF CATTLE. 
By Mr. Robert Read, Credit on. 
[Continued from p. 57.] 
The acquirement of a little knowledge of chemistry by the 
country veterinarian, as relates to farming, will be the means of 
making him the pleasant associate of the agriculturist; for the 
cloud of ignorance that, only a few years since, overshadowed the 
cultivators of the land, is now fast dissolving away, and the ge- 
nerality of our yeomanry are become scientific men and thirst 
after that knowledge which tends to the improvement of their 
