NORTH OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 71 
removing all the under-run portions of the sole, a‘nd ascertain by means 
of the probe to what extent the internal structures are involved. In 
many cases I find that the quickest treatment consists in inserting a 
seton through the sole and bringing it out at the heel, thus giving a 
free exit to any pus that may have formed, and producing by the 
stimulus of the seton a healthy state of the parts. After keeping the 
seton in the wound for a week or ten davs, during which time I should 
have it dressed daily with stimulating digestive ointment, I remove it 
and have the parts syringed every day with solution of Zin. Sulph., and 
place on the foot a round or bar shoe. 
Amongst the most frequent cases of injury to the sole of the foot are 
those caused by pricks in shoeing. These injuries are often difficult to 
discover, especially when the nail has been drawn by the smith and a 
fresh one inserted. I am always most careful to examine the nail holes 
in every case where there is the least doubt as to the seat of lameness, 
even if the lameness is said to have come on suddenly, and the horse 
has not been shod for two or three weeks. For over and over again 
have I found, on examining the foot in these cases, that a nail has pene¬ 
trated, perhaps very slightly, through the horn, and the animal may 
evince very little pain or lameness for a considerable time, when suddenly 
he is noticed to be lame, and on removing the shoe and examining the 
foot I have found a great portion of the sole under-run Occasionally, 
lameness may arise from the nails being too close to the laminae, although 
not actually through the horn, yet so nearly as to press upon and bruise 
the sensitive parts, and if not removed speedily produce so much 
inflammation that pus forms, and being unable to absorb, it diffuses itself 
beneath the horn in every direction. In other cases the nail may have 
been driven in with such force as to penetrate and even fracture the os 
pedis. Only the other day my attention was drawn to a pony in one of 
the collieries, in which, in shoeing, a nail had taken the wrong direction. 
The smith by some means or other had not noticed the animal to show 
any pain or lameness at the time. Nearly a week elapsed, when the 
pony was found to be very lame. The shoe was removed. The foot 
examined without result. Next day matter was observed to be oozing 
from the coronet, the horn separating at its junction with the hair. It 
was then my attention was called to the case. I immediately had the 
foot thoroughly searched, and soon found that the whole of the quarter 
was under-run, and on passing the probe detected fracture of the aim of 
the os pedis. I then ordered the pony to bank into hospital, removed 
the whole of the horn from the outside quarters of the foot, then with the 
forceps took away perhaps three quarters of an inch of the os pedis. After 
cleaning the wound and dressing with carbolic acid liniment and covering 
over all with tow and bandage, the case has done well. 
In addition to injury from pricks in shoeing the sole of the foot is 
peculiarly liable to injury from being brought forcibly in contact with 
sharp substances left carelessly about on roads, such as nails, glass, wire, 
&c., &c. The successful treatment of injuries caused in this manner 
depends, to a great extent, upon the part of the sole perforated. Not 
long since I was looking over the ponies in a colliery, when, on making 
one that had just come from work stand over in the stable, I noticed that 
he was very lame, and on running my hand down the leg and around the 
coronet to ascertain the cause, my hand came in contact with something 
protruding above the heel, and on picking up the foot I found that a 
lamp nail, some four inches in length, had gone completely through the 
foot, going in at the outer angle of the sole and coming out in the heel. 
It took all the force we co^d exert to draw it out with the pincers. Of 
