REPORTS OF CASES. 
565 
REPORTS OF CASES. 
“ Careful observation makes a skillful practitioner, but his skill dies with hitn. By 
recording his observations, he adds to the knowledge of his profession, and assists by his 
facts in building tip the solid edifice of pathological science.'" 
“ leeches,” “ HOOF ROT,” “ FOOT ROT,” HOOF DISEASE, ETC. 
By Grrald E. Griffin, D.V.S., Fifth Cavalry, U. S. Army. 
I don’t hail from Florida, and particularly not that portion 
of it adjacent to Tampa, for which, O Ford, I thank thee ; but 
I spent the summer there at the Government’s expense and 
much against my inclination, for Tampa is not an ideal sum¬ 
mer resort nor will it ever be, until Hades becomes congealed 
superiorly. In and around Tampa, and, I am informed, all over 
the peninsula, it is frequently irrigated by the clouds during 
the summer months (rainy season, in fact), but it doesn’t rain 
—Jupiter Pluvius just knocks out the sea valves from the em¬ 
banked nimbus and it simply floods the earth. The altitude of 
Tampa is not great—one foot and a few inches, more or less. 
The rain floods collect in the depressions in the palmetto 
swamps, and, lo! in a few minutes you have a lake where once 
you had a promenade. The government teamster takes advan¬ 
tage of these lakes and the unsuspecting army mule is led down 
there to partake of the waters at stated and occasionally irregu¬ 
lar intervals. This plan saves the teamster from journeying to 
the designated water-trough, and at the same time the mule has 
the advantage of absorbing the tropical organic matter in the 
water—a kind of soup, as it were, and then the drink is not so 
cold as at the trough, the sun having gotten in his fine work on 
it; moreover, the mule doesn’t have to walk so far, and, then, 
the mud cools off his heels, and the teamster believes in letting 
them keep cool, too. While all this was going on under my 
august observation, discretion kept me silent, being only the 
regimental horse doctor, supposed to be deaf, dumb and blind. 
We (the mules and I) were approached by the genus homo of 
the country (the aborigine, I believe is the word), known vul¬ 
garly as the “ Cracker,” a poor devil addicted to the use of 
quinine sulphate in large doses, followed at intervals of two 
days by Kakeman’s liver pills, swamp root, chill tonic, and 
whiskey. Between doses he has them so bad that he shakes 
like a canine defecating an undigested osteological collection, 
and refers to his liver, which we were led to believe was, in the 
Florida “ Cracker,” situated in his lower abdominal region. He 
