194 
A. A. HOLCOMBE. 
periostitis and superficial ostitis. It is not necessary in every instance 
that the periosteum be wounded to produce an inflammation of its sub¬ 
stance, for from the intimate relation which it bears to the surrounding 
parts, it may become inflamed in consequence of the diseased condition 
of the contiguous soft tissues, as in acute laminitis, arthritis, or the pres¬ 
sure from keratoma. 
But when the tissue has been wounded, the damage cannot be re¬ 
paired except through the inflammatory process, and although this pro¬ 
cess is generally reparative in its tendencies, it may assume the destruc¬ 
tive form, and the complications and terminations be anything but 
desirable. 
The serious consequences resulting from punctured wounds of the 
feet depend upon the seat of the wound, and the amount of injury done 
the tissues. 
If the instrument causing the wound be small, and the injury in¬ 
flicted but slight, the process necessary to repair the damage is, of course, 
quite limited; but if the puncture is made by a large instrument, or the 
tissues are deeply perforated, then does the destruction of tissue become 
greater, and the consequent disease proportionate. Wounds upon the 
lower part of the wall, and in the anterior portion of the sole of the foot, 
are of less consequence than those m the neighborhood of the joints. 
The injury in the foimer class of cases is, as a rule, quite limited, 
although there may be fracture, with its attendant serious consequences, 
but mostly there is only a circumscribed inflammation of the tissues 
with or without suppuration, which, if properly and early treated, ends 
in a short time with complete recovery, and the animal can again be put 
to his accustomed work. 
Shoeing-smiths, in their attempts at bleeding from the toe, and 
ti eating of nail-pricks, sometimes succeed in presenting the Veterinarian 
with an interesting case of suppurative periostitis, where, had the tissues 
been given relief in exudation by a free and judicious use of the knife, 
would have terminated at most in a moderate amount of villitis. To 
those wounds situated in the immediate locality of the frog, and especially 
those through the cleft, as well as the ones seen upon the superior an¬ 
terior portion of the wall from the sharp calks of the shoes in winter 
time, must there always be more or less grave importance attached. A 
punctured wound of the sole near the last phalangeal articulation, even 
when slight, is prone to be followed by periostitis and synovitis, in which 
the attachment of the flexor pedis perforans takes part. 
It is these wounds occurring near the heel, where the nail or other 
