CHRONIC FOOT LAMENESS. 
151 
tered. I had now to proceed to London, leaving instructions to 
attend to his feet, and to repeat the blisters three times within a 
month; and that during the day leg-bandages should be con¬ 
stantly used, kept wet with vinegar and water. About a 
month after this I wrote to Mr. Henderson, V.S., Edinburgh, 
and requested him to go twelve miles to see him, and to intro¬ 
duce setons through his feet, and to write me what he thought 
of his chance of recovery. At that time his opinion did not prove 
very cheering; but I said, “ patience and perseverance/' The 
setons were kept open for a fortnight, when he was turned into a 
soft paddock. The blisters were repeated. In June the weather 
was hot and the ground dry, and he returned to the outhouse, where 
setons were again passed. In July I once more saw him, when 
he appeared to me to go better, though he shuffled somewhat, 
from his feet being thin. I had him shod lightly, interposing 
leather, with tow and tar, between the shoe and the sole. The 
great amendment in his action was forthwith apparent. He 
shortly began to go so well, that I sent him to gentle exercise, 
preparatory to an essay to train him, which I had determined on. 
Every care was paid to his feet to keep them cool and easy, and 
the circulation ordinate in degree (which I had conceived to have 
been in excess, the arteries in the extremities beat so full), by the 
constant use of the cold bandages. On the 1st of August he 
commenced with his work ; and though he was rattled a good deal 
in it to try to get him in any form at all to run at Ayr, in Sep¬ 
tember, he stood it, under this care, uncommonly well. If he 
shewed a little shy in his action at first, after his gallops, instead 
of retrograding, he gradually got better and better; and, on a 
very hasty and meagre allowance of work, he came out at tVe 
western meeting in September, for a £50 plate, and ran two 
very decent two mile heats; so much so, that I continued him in 
training to run for a gold cup at an October meeting. He went 
on very well, and only once, after his return from Ayr, gave any 
symptoms of feet-tendemess. Two days lay by, and a return to 
the use of the leather, which had not been put on after he was 
plated, enabled him to go on perfectly sound, and to improve into 
a very superior horse, to the surprise of those who had formerly 
known him. But within a few days of his starting to travel to 
where he was to run, he ran away with the lad who was riding 
him for exercise, and, pitching over a steep, injured himself so se¬ 
riously, as to render him useless. 
This horse had not been all along exceedingly lame, for he had 
been much nursed, but always so lame as to render him useless 
as a race-horse, and unsafe to ride in any way. The issue of the 
case, after so long a period of unsoundness, has frequently since 
