LAMINITIS AND ITS TREATMENT. 
389 
is weak and flat, and then surcharge it with a clumsy jarring 
mass of iron that strains limb and crust, is surely a mistake, 
theoretically and practically. 
If I were asked to produce a case of foot disease—such as 
larainitis, to order, I think I could not do better than follow 
Mr. Broad’s method of shoeing a foot of this description. 
Take a horse with weak flat feet, pare these well, and attach 
to them very heavy shoes resting only on the crust, with the 
usual large number of good-sized nails ; then on a hot day in 
July, drive or ride the animal for thirty, forty, fifty, or even 
sixty miles on a hard pavement, and if it is able to repeat 
the journey next day, my slender amount of experience goes 
for naught. 
Mr. Broad asks, Does not a sportsman with his gun 
find that he can walk all day in a stout heavy pair of boots 
more comfortably than in his dress boots?” 
Here, again, it is difficult to fipd any relation between the 
illustration and the subject under discussion. What is incor¬ 
rectly, but usually termed the horse’s foot, cannot be com¬ 
pared with the foot of man, inasmuch as man’s foot is, in 
comparison with the horse’s hind limb, the whole extremity 
from the hock downwards. Besides, the horse naturallv ha§ 
a hoof on what we may still call its foot, which is far better 
adapted for travelling than the sportsman’s shooting boot, 
as it is both strong and elastic, and needs nothing but pro¬ 
tection to its margin. By injudicious treatment, such as 
paring, it becomes flat and weak, or those conditions, if 
congenital, are maintained, or even aggravated, by cutting 
and rasping, and the horse is then reduced to the plight of 
a sportsman in dress boots. 
If the reasons for resorting to heavy bar-shoes in cases of 
acute laminitis be founded on Mr. Broad’s arguments, I fear 
they will be far from satisfactory to those of the profession 
who like to preserve the juste milieu between theory and 
practice. For myself, I am far from denying the utility of 
Mr. Broad’s method of treatment, which nevertheless appears 
to require several modifications. When I find my own 
method less successful I wdll willingly give it a trial, even 
though I may not be able to satisfy myself as to the way in 
which very heavy shoes nailed to, and carried about by, 
inflamed feet, act in subduing the acute inflammation. It 
is very unlikely, however, that with my present method of 
shoeing any cases of laminitis will occur among the horses 
under my care. Weak flat feet are allowed to grow strong, 
and are shod with the smallest possible quantity of iron pro¬ 
perly applied, so that concussion is reduced to a minimum. 
