570 
THE TREATMENT OF LAMINITIS. 
some sixty miles on a hot day in July, as likely to produce 
laminitis. Mr. Broad retorts by saying, that this would be a 
likely means of producing the malady, whatever system of 
shoeing were adopted; and the person who gave it a trial 
ought to be prosecuted for cruelty to animals. Now, I do not 
think any one will accuse me of the intention of wilfully in¬ 
flicting cruelty at any time, and yet, if Mr. Broad is correct, such 
a verdict would be returned against me. In September last, 
during hot weather, my wife and myself rode from Chatham 
to Atherstone, distance 138 miles, in three days and a fore¬ 
noon, travelling fifty-six miles the first day. After a few 
days’ rest we returned by another route, distance 200 miles, 
in four and a-half days. My object was to test the value of 
light shoes, and unmutilated soles and frogs, and the result 
w^as in the highest degree satisfactory. The horses travelled 
easily, there was not the slightest sign of “ frettizing,” the 
feet were uninjured, and the animals unharmed. Such would 
not have been the result had heavy shoeing been employed, 
and I am glad that Mr. Broad corroborates this fact from his 
experience. 
Mr. Broad asserts that chronic cases of laminitis are not 
recoverable without the use of special shoes, which, I pre¬ 
sume, are the ones he recommends. This is scarcely correct, 
as I have a horse now in my stable which recovered from 
chronic laminitis without the use of stout shoes, and I have 
known of others. 
Mr. Broad states that, in addition to the heavy shoes 
diminishing vibration (which is, in my opinion, an un¬ 
reasonable theory), they allow the horse to throw his 
weight on the heels and frogs, thereby relieving the 
laminse more efiectually than he can do with light shoes, 
or without any.” Now it may well he doubted whether 
heavy iron clogs, nailed tightly to the wall of the foot, relieve 
the inflamed laminse at all, and especially when the horse is 
compelled to carry them about for hours ; audit is sufficiently 
manifest that if the frog is shrunken or mutilated, as is 
generally the case with the ordinary vicious method of shoe- 
ing, it will not reach the shoe, and consequently cannot 
share in sustaining the animal’s weight. 
Mr. Broad says he treated a case of laminitis on my plan. 
It will be at once seen that the treatment he adopted was but 
a portion of that pursued by me with success, but which has 
perhaps no more right to be designated mine than exercise 
and heavy shoes is Mr. Broad’s. I am pleased to observe, 
however, that very simple treatment he describes, and which 
has never been tried by me, was so successful in a fortnight 
