614 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
instance, by bleeding at the toe, “ yet in the warm climate of Por- 
tugal, I (he says) was liable to lose my patient, afterwards in con- 
sequence of the wound that I had made in the foot. Suppuration 
was apt to take place in the sole ; secondary inflammation would 
be set up; and this would be followed by tumefaction, burrowing 
up and bursting all round the coronet ; and then the game was lost. 
(The consequence being, the casting of the hoof.) I therefore 
abandoned the foot altogether, and began to bleed higher up.” 
D’Arboval strongly expresses his fears that the toe yields trop peu 
de sang to directly relieve the sanguiferous system of the foot : 
such, however, can only arise from imperfect operation. 
Those who object to stabbing the inflamed tissues may open the 
pastern veins, or, as D’Arboval suggests, in case swelling should 
oppose this, they may open the superficial coronary artery in front 
of the coronet. I have often myself had recourse to the plat vein, 
choosing this vessel in preference to the jugular; and through it 
have been enabled to make an impression on the foot at the same 
time that I made an impression on the system, selecting that limb 
for the operation which appeared in the greatest pain. Sometimes 
a good deal of blood is drawn by the punctures of the setons, and 
when such is the case there will, of course, be less necessity for 
seeking for other sources of local blood-letting. Should the coronets 
be hot and painful, D’Arboval advises that they be freely scarified, 
the scarifications being made in the direction of the axis of the 
limb, and the bleeding encouraged as much as possible by immer- 
sion of the feet in warm water, or in poultices. This I regard as 
a practice likely to prove in urgent cases highly beneficial. Should 
there be any apprehension of too much blood being lost, the feet, 
he says, may be plunged into cold water. 
In lieu of the mode of treatment which I have been here recom- 
mending, by some veterinarians a totally opposite course is pur- 
sued. Instead of warm and soothing applications, they make use 
of cold and repellent ones; they endeavour to repel or drive away 
the inflammation, alleging that the treatment adopted by us has a 
tendency to induce the suppurative action, the very thing it is our 
duty to avoid. For this purpose, constant supplies of the coldest 
water, tying the horse up in a stream of water, applications of 
pounded ice or snow to the feet, should either be attainable, & c., 
are various methods in practice for the agency of cold ; and, no 
doubt, they have in many cases proved effectual ; though, in my 
opinion, they are not a class of remedies to be adopted for choice, 
but only under circumstances of convenience or necessity. I have, 
before now, all but benumbed and paralysed the feet by the use of 
ice ; but without that beneficial effect which, considering our grand 
object to be resolution, some might expect from it : nay, indeed, 
