SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
537 
to be shod with projecting heels, which injure the elbow when 
the animals are lying down. 
Dr. Robertson; Regarding the cause of shoe-boils, the gen¬ 
eral complaint is that they are due to the mode of shoeing. The 
writers of our text-books are of the same opinion. I remember 
when practicing with one of the leading practitioners of this 
city that he frequently complained that the shoers were the 
cause of them. Commenting on it in particular, I told him I 
had seen shoe-boils on horses very nicely shod, on horses that 
had never been shod, and even on the larger breeds of dogs. 
Certainly these latter did not get them from poor shoeing. & I 
have in mind a stable of horses that are very frequently afflicted 
with them, and I have traced the cause to the pavement of cedar 
blocks and poor bedding. 
Dr. Merillat; In regard to fistulse of the withers: The city 
veterinarian does not meet with them as frequently as the coun¬ 
try practitioner, and as there are members here who have had 
country experience, let us hear their opinions as to the liability 
of fistulse to recur. 
Dr. Hughes : Being a city practitioner all my life, I have 
had comparatively little experience with fistulse of the withers, 
but the experience I have had has taught me that fistulse that 
are once properly healed do not recur. Most of the country 
practitioners with whom I have discussed the subject are of the 
same opinion. The question of importance is the cause. It is 
the most extraordinary thing to find as many as 5 to 15 cases 
occurring simultaneously, without any perceptible cause. As 
to shoe-boils, it is a serious question for the practitioner to de¬ 
cide upon in the examination of horses for soundness. Should 
a horse, with a scar on the elbow or a small nodule the size of 
a hickory nut, be passed as sound, knowing their liability to 
recur ? It often bothers me to give a decision in these cases. 
What is the starting point of shoe-boils? Some of our text¬ 
books teach us there is a mucous sac at the point of the elbow. 
Is there such a muco-synovial sac present? Will some one en¬ 
lighten us on the subject? 
Dr. Merillat: A careful dissection of the point of the hock 
reveals the existence of a secreting surface, but the same ar¬ 
rangement is not readily found at the elbow. 
Dr. Allen : I have some statistics on the use of antitoxin for 
the prevention of tetanus. The stable in which I experimented 
lost 43 horses from tetanus during 20 years. During the last 
year of these twenty-seven died. Since beginning the use of 
