456 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING 
the majority of cases the secondary effects, or sequelae, of contraction of the 
feet, are troubles, which, if they had occurred in a sound leg, would have caused 
contraction of the foot as a complicating disease. 
Race has for a long time been recognized as a predisposing cause, and con¬ 
traction certainly occurs more frequently in horses of breeds which have thick, 
hard, rapidly-growing hoofs, of dense structure, than those with lioof-walls of 
a more delicate structure. The Oriental horse has been accused, but I believe 
somewhat unjustly, of being prone to this affection. 
Heredity is an important etiological factor. The horse with feet predisposed 
to contraction will get progeny with like feet; the horse who has, from any 
cause, acquired contracted feet, is apt to transmit the anatomical defect to his 
get, and such an animal, although he may not be lame, should be excluded from 
the stud. 
Dry climate and summer weather tend to draw the natural moisture from 
the horny structures, diminish their elasticity, and favor retraction of the tis¬ 
sues, which ends in permanent contraction. Dryness is more serious when al¬ 
ternating with moisture than it is on animals who have been reared in such con¬ 
dition as the horse of the desert, whose constitution has accommodated itself to 
- its surroundings. 
iStabulation affects the hygroscopicity of the hoof to a marked degree, 
which is increased when it is continuous for several days at a time, alternating 
with exposure to excessive moisture. Under these conditions, the fluids of the 
horny tissue do not seem to be able to find or retain their normal relations to it. 
An example of the effect of constant dryness is seen in the dead hoof, which 
alters its shape even when filled with piaster-of-paris. 
Inaction of the animal, a result of stabulation, diminishes the moisture of 
the hoof, as it slows the current in the vessel and reduces the amount of blood 
pressure on its inner surface. 
Too long continuance of the shoes and want of dressing of shod feet produce 
the same results by elongating the tissues from their vascular supply. In a 
stallion, the subject of a legal controversy, kept for twelve months in a stall, 
the overgrown hoof diminished to one-half its natural diameter, and curled up 
like the horns of a ram.* 
Rasping the walls of the foot after shoeing favors evaporation, and dimin¬ 
ishes the hygroscopic power of the horn. Hot shoes , which evaporate the fluids 
from the horn, render the latter improper to reabsorb and hold moisture. 
Mechanically, contraction is frequently produced by the vicious system, so 
common in some shops, of “ opening the heels,” or cutting away the bars, which 
are the natural support of the heels and quarters. Shoes fitted too tightly to the 
heels, so as to hold them and prevent their natural expansion, and nails driven 
too far back on the quarters, as is seen in the shoeing of some racehorses, both 
serve as starting-points for subsequent contraction. 
Pain , whether in the foot or in other parts of the leg from contraction itself, 
corn, quittors, wounds, ringbones, or trouble in tendons, when they cause the 
animal to rest its leg and ease the foot from the ground, produces inaction, want 
* 
Specimen in Museum at Veterinary School, Alfort, France. 
