616 
GEORGE J. GOUBEAUD. 
affection nor to describe the various degrees which the injury 
can attain, neither will I consider its therapy, aside from the 
element of prevention. Therefore the etiology alone will be 
considered. 
I well remember how attentively I listened to those older 
in the profession than I describe to clients how an animal would 
produce a shoe-boil, when they brought a patient having such a 
disfigurement for treatment. After the injury, for such it is, had 
been attended to, instructions would be given for the prevention 
of its recurrence, and invariably they were told that the heels 
of the shoe should be shortened so that they could not possibly 
press upon the elbow; a*padded ring should be placed around 
the coronary region, and a bar or strip of wood placed in about 
the centre of the stall, so that the animal could not put the foot 
under him without causing itself great inconvenience, discomfort 
and a still greater amount of pain ; and in recent years some 
have advocated the rubber pad or shoe, so that it is, as it were, 
impossible for the animal to injure himself by lying upon the 
iron shoe, and as a result prevent all liability to produce a re¬ 
currence of the affection. 
I believed firmly in what I had been taught. I employed 
the principles for prevention faithfully. The cause which was 
ascribed to it seemed to me to be reasonable, and I applied the 
above lines of treatment for prevention ; but, alas, I met with 
many a successful failure. It is true that in some instances I 
had no recurrence of the trouble, but in the majority of cases I 
had subsequent attacks, the severity of the injury depending 
upon the intensity of the cause. I know that my patients had 
short-heeled shoes, and of late years a rubber pad for a shoe, a 
bar of wood across the stall, and I believe that the shoe-boil ring 
had been regularly placed in position every night. All these 
agents were employed as preventive measures, and still there 
were recurrences of the injury. Now, it is reasonable to suppose 
that others have done the same thing, and have met with the 
same success, for it is not possible that all my cases Were excep¬ 
tions. The shoe, or the hoof, cause shoe-boil, or they do not. I 
