224 
A. ZUNDEL. 
the nutritive and secreting functions of their tissues without in¬ 
terfering with their structure. To reach this point, the most varied 
pharmaceutical agents have been recommended, the most success¬ 
ful being those which at the same time had parasiticide proper¬ 
ties. We however, find it difficult to give the preference to any 
of them ; and we have now more faith in the modus faciendi, to 
the skill of the operator, to the continued use of dressings prop¬ 
erly applied, than to such or such agent; all those which have 
been recommended if methodically applied, can cure canker, and 
it will be wise to employ them alternatively ; when one fails at 
first it is prudent to try another ; canker is a disease so often re¬ 
bellious to treatment, especially if confined to the lacunse of the 
frog, that too many remedies cannot be used. 
The first indication is to remove the excess of the horn of the 
wall, whose length we have said, is often very great; and to pre¬ 
pare a convenient shoe for the dressings. This shoe necessarily 
varies, as canker is exclusively localized to the plantar surface of 
the foot or extends to the prodophyllous laminse. Generally an or¬ 
dinary shoe is used, more or less covered (wide) and so hollowed as 
to allow the free application of plates by which the dressing is 
kept in place. When the condition of the disease requires the re¬ 
moval of large pieces of horn, a truncated slipper is used, pro¬ 
portioned in cutting to the extent of the parts of the wall upon 
which it is to be applied. There are circumstances even when 
shoes cannot be used, so much does the disease extend under the 
wall. It is then necessary to use a shoe without nails, or boots, 
secured to the coronet by means of straps. In all cases the rule 
is to take care that the dressings remain fixed in the most exact 
manner, and that through them, a methodic, steady, but not ex¬ 
cessive pressure is constantly applied over the diseased parts. 
The first step of the operations passed, the next consists in 
the removal with proper instruments, of all the loose portions of 
the horn, either at the plantar surface, at the quarter, or at the 
heels. One must avoid, in this operation, the excision of soft 
parts; but the important indication is to follow the disease where- 
ever it exists, and to leave no part of the horn which may have been 
detached by morbid exudations. Better cut the healthy structures, 
