GANGH KNOTTS DISK ASF. AMONG CATTLK. 
tion or ring passing round the leg at right angles with its length. 
If frozen when the animal was in a recumbent posture, as would 
be oftenest the case, the upper and more exposed portions of the 
limbs would be frozen higher up than those partially protected 
by the bedding or other substance with which they were brought 
into juxtaposition. 
Well, Sir, the animal, though eating voraciously, begins to grow 
thin : the lameness, as spring approaches, increases. As the warm 
weather begins to be felt, the emaciation goes rapidly on : the 
animal becomes a miserable and a disgusting object, crawling 
around on feet which have ceased to perform their natural func- 
tions, and that are united to the living parts, which they only 
irritate by their abrasion, by the bones and ligaments which are 
yet unsevered. 
Strong constitutioned animals, that commenced the winter 
in high condition, and that were carefully nursed, not unfre- 
quently live on until summer. The dead parts slough off; and 
the animal, destitute of one and sometimes both hind feet, has 
been in some instances partially fattened, and converted into 
beef! In what appears to be a milder form of the disease, death 
of the parts does not always ensue. The extremities, however 
(of the hind legs), lose their elasticity — the points of the hoof 
turn upward, and grow unnaturally long — and the cow hobbles 
about on her “ heels/’ until the humanity or good taste of the 
owner consigns her to the butcher. 
Every imaginable cause is assigned for this disease in our 
country — every imaginable remedy is resorted to. I should 
blush for the absurdity of some of the latter, were it not for the 
fact, that I learn from your work on Cattle — in the “ Farmer’s 
Series” — that such absurdities are not confined to the United 
States. But let them pass. 
I may remark that practical veterinary science is yet in its 
infancy in this country. We have the ignorant, the pretending, 
the superstitious cowleech — a genus, I suppose, existing in every 
country; but any thing like a class of educated and intelligent 
veterinary surgeons are not to be found in the United States. 
There may be occasional instances of skilful practitioners in our 
larger cities, but they are little known and little consulted by our 
people. Every man, gentle or simple, is his own farrier. If his 
horse is sick, he resorts to the nostrums of the “ horse doctor;” 
or, armed with your work, or that of Mr. Blaine, he decides and 
prescribes “ by the book.” If his cows are diseased, your work 
above alluded to, on “Cattle,” is generally resorted to by those who 
go beyond the authority of the cowleech. In my own yard I 
have called in no other authority for many years. 
