THE HOKSE’S FOOT. 
429 
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A dietetic regime, light feeding, during the first days at least, 
cooling drinks, rectal injections and comfortable blankets are all 
indicated. 
One must particularly watch what takes place in the foot, and 
for this purpose grooves made at the surface of the foot have also 
been recommended; but they cannot be made deep enough, as 
the wall is always there resisting more or less to the eccentric 
forces of the deep parts. 
If towards the third or fourth day there is no marked im¬ 
provement, especially in traumatic founder, if even the patient 
becomes worse, if the pulsation at the digital arteries is stronger, 
harder and more frequent, it becomes necessary at once to thin 
the sole down, and make a puncture upon the line of demarca¬ 
tion of the sole and wall with the drawing knife. Often then a 
flow of pus or blood, more or less altered, takes place, the nature 
of which indicates the progress of the disease. If it is of a grey 
blackish color, it is evidence that the horny tissue only is affected; 
while if white, it indicates a greater change. Ilertwig advises 
this operation always, when laminitis is of long duration. He thus 
produces an artificial seedy toe, which is considered the mildest 
form of the disease. He recommends to make a deep groove 
upon this white line so far as there is separation of the wall from 
the podophyllous tissue, and then combines the treatment with 
the use of astringent baths of sulphate of copper. We have on 
several occasions been pleased with this treatment, combining it 
with the application of a blister around the coronet. It is prefer¬ 
able to the longitudinal grooves, or to the trephining, which is 
sometimes recommended. 
There are numerous cases, however, when, notwithstanding all 
these rational means, the disease cannot be arrested, and when a 
fatally chronic laminitis ensues. This must be considered incur¬ 
able in the majority of cases. It is almost impossible to bring 
the foot back to its physiological condition, and, above all, to pre¬ 
vent the hypersecretion of the hoof which characterizes it. 
However, in case of simple seedy toe, if it is the result of 
hoemorrhage, or even of suppuration, a cure may sometimes be ob¬ 
tained. Generally, by thinning it down, the entire portion of the 
wall which, at the toe, the mammae and the anterior part of the 
