ATROPHY OF THE PLANTAR CUSHION. 
19 
is to respect the frog while shoeing. This organ seems to say, 
Noli me tang ere ! And, perhaps, was the veterinarian right, who, 
according to Mr. Merche, had placed at the door of the shoer 
shop a sign: “ Do not touch the frog!” This recommenda¬ 
tion could not be insisted on too much. Do we not often see our 
blacksmiths paring the frog to excess? 
If the contraction of the wall is already existing, if the frog 
has already undergone a process of atrophy, the curative treat¬ 
ment must be looked for. Remove the shoes and turn him out 
in soft damp fields, where the foot can sink and the plantar sur¬ 
face come down to rest. This may prove useful even in yet well 
marked hoof-bound. This fact was already known by Ruini, in 
the 17tli century. 
“ Ploughing on soft ground, with thin, light slipper, allows 
to the foot the contact of the damp ground, and gives very satis¬ 
factory results” (L. Goyau). 
The shoeing to be used varies with the intensity of the affec¬ 
tion. If at the beginning of the disease, the ferrure a lunette is 
sufficient ; later, the bar shoe. 
The benefits of the bar shoe are not ignored by any one. 
Many employ it and are satisfied with it. Goyau says of it: “A 
quick and great spreading of the foot is obtained, if its applica¬ 
tion is preceded by the thinning of the contracted wall. * * * 
With it, the animal is kept at work, and the hoof grows down 
with quite considerable dimensions.” (The paring of the wall 
seems to us useless.) 
If the frog is too atrophied, and the bar of the shoe cannot 
rest on it, it is necessary to have recourse to an artificial frog of 
gutta-percha, which allows that pressure of the bar of the shoe to 
take place. MM. Jeannin and Dupon were the first to recom¬ 
mend it—the former in 1862, and the latter in 1868. Mr. Goy¬ 
au modified their mode of using it, by placing an entire cover of 
gutta-percha over the whole plantar surface of the foot and 
placing the shoe over it, after having pared the foot, the frog 
well cleaned, and the bars thinned carefully. 
We operate as follows : We clean the frog, pare the wall and 
the sole slightly. If the frog is thrushy, we dress it with JEgyp- 
