428 
A. ZUNDEL. 
says it is a sure means to prevent the separation of the nail. This 
seems to us unwarranted. Internally, the administration of nitre, 
cream of tartar, ammoniacal salts, sulphate of soda, are given ; 
drugs which are indicated by the febrile state; alkaline remedies 
are administered to render the blood more fluid and increase the 
venous circulation. Aloes, recommended in England and bv Hert- 
wig, is contra-indicated, as increasing the disease and facilitating 
the dropping of the foot. 
It has been advised to take the shoes off. This is not only a 
difficult operation, on account of the sufferings of the animal, 
obliged to stand up on one leg, but it seems to us useless. Shoe¬ 
ing has not the effect supposed of it in the etiology. If it is well 
fitted it is not uncomfortable to the foot, while its removal from the 
shoe, by the hammering it requires, is always painful, and had 
better be avoided. 
/ 
It has been recommended to pare the foot, to shorten it, to 
thin the sole down ; but this operation seems to us in many cases 
superfluous. It is true that the topics will act more readily upon 
the living tissues underneath, but the advantages thus obtained do 
not compensate for the difficulty of the operation; at any rate it 
cannot he done except when the animal lies down. 
We shall pass silently the effect, so to speak homeopathic, that 
English veterinarians pretend to obtain with very warm poultices 
around the foot, and which have their reasons only when suppu¬ 
ration or gangrene is threatening. Neither shall we refer to the 
compression of the foot, recommended by Nanzio—a treatment 
which is much nicer in theory than in practice. In a great number of 
cases the patient is considerably relieved by resting on a good bed, 
and this is especially necessary for severe laminitis when locomo¬ 
tion is very painful. However, in less serious cases, walking on 
soft ground, especially on grass, is an excellent treatment. It 
stimulates the circulation in parts where the blood has a tendency 
to accumulate, and controls the venous engorgement of the kera- 
togenous tissue. It has been sometimes recommended to support 
the animal in slings to relieve him ; hut as with this one would ex¬ 
pose his patient to pulmonary complications, it is better to cast 
him and keep him in that forced position, being careful to turn 
him over from time to time. 
