OBSERVATIONS ON SOUNDNESS. 
89 
the horse gave way, or, in other words, broke down in one 
fetlock-joint (the other was also slightly affected). The owner 
of this horse treated him at his own house for some weeks in 
the usual manner, by employing water-dressings to the parts 
affected. Not feeling satisfied with the progress the case 
was making, he sent for me to go and fire both front legs, 
provided they were in a proper state. I examined both legs, 
and could not detect any abnormal heat in them, and I gave 
an opinion to the effect that firing was the best remedy to 
employ; and that, if all went on well , the horse would be fit 
to put to work in about three months. He was cast and 
carefully fired. In a few weeks the servant called to say the 
horse was going on well, that a good job had been made of 
the case, and that no blemish would take place, which I was 
pleased to hear. In about three months, or more, I learned 
that the horse was more lame than he had ever been, and 
that the opinion of a veterinary surgeon had been sought, 
which was to the effect " that the horse had been fired too 
severely ” (this was a gratuitous piece of insolence). The 
owner took advantage of the opinion he had received from 
a “ horse-dealing vet.,” and held the operator responsible 
for the state of the parts at that time. An explanatory note 
was written, which led to some angry remarks from the owner, 
who, however, afforded me an opportunity of examining the 
state of the limbs of his horse. I found that the joint had 
been injured in three places by the heel of the shoe of the 
opposite foot, and it was plain that the horse had been in the 
habit of rubbing the skin upwards and downwards for several 
inches, so as to produce blemishes at each part, leaving the 
intermediate parts unlouched . The ^injured parts bore 
marks of the iron, and the hair had grown in such a man¬ 
ner that they were scarcely discernible without looking 
closely at the leg. The joint was double its natural size, and 
externally inflamed —indeed, red—and remained so for six 
months. I kept the animal at my own expense, in order to see 
the termination of the case and to secure the limb after death. 
Finding no chance of relieving the horse, I advised he should 
be destroyed, unless kept for farm work, to which the owner 
would not consent. He was destroyed, and the bones from 
the knee to the foot are in my possession, a brief description 
of which may not be unacceptable. I found the large meta¬ 
carpal, the sesamoids, the os suffraginis, the os coronee, the 
navicular and the pedal bones discoloured ; their hue is purple. 
The lower half of the large metacarpal bone is covered with 
spiculi. both anteriorly and laterally ; the suffraginis is like- 
