latter are not able to employ a sufficient number of hands, to reduce the poor's rates, and the lands are getting into a state of deterioration. "There is great reason to apprehend,” he observes, "that unless some important changes soon take place, the owners and occupiers of land will be reduced to a deplorable state. I find, in most counties around London, that the capital of the farmers is very greatly reduced within the last four years, for, in numerous instances, many have paid their rents from capital, and others from borrowed money. When farms have come to be re-let, a respectable tenant cannot be procured unless at a reduction of fully from 25 to 30 per cent. This is very generally the case, and at this next Michaelmas, I know of many proprietors who will have large tracts of land given up to them." With my best wishes for the success of your interesting and useful publication, I remain, &c. EDINBURGH, 133. GEORGE STREET, ON THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE FOOT OF THE HORSE, -THE TREATMENT AND PREVENTION OF CONTRACTION. By Mr WILLIAM DICK, Veterinary Surgeon, Edinburgh. SIR, In the latter part of my last letter (vol. i. page 731.), I endeavoured to explain the nature and causes of Contraction, Navicular Lameness, or Grogginess; and, at the conclusion of it, I gave an enumeration of the symptoms of the disease. In the present letter, after offering a few further remarks on the symptoms, I shall proceed to point out the means to be adopted in the treatment and prevention of the disease. The foot of the horse, as has already been stated, is attacked by this disease in various ways. In some, the attack is sudden; in others, its progress is slow. In the former case, it commonly arises from an injury done at the seat of the disease. In the latter case, the injury extends from the other parts of the foot; and here we have the symptoms formerly enumerated,—the shifting of the feet, the shortness of the step, and the heat of the heels and coronet. There is also a chronic degree of inflammation of the feet produced, which causes the animal to shift alternately his weight from the one foot to the other, in order to obtain relief; and, when in action, he steps short for the same reason. No sooner does he raise the one foot from the ground, than the pain in the other, in supporting his weight, causes him to bring it quickly down, while the tenderness of the foot which has been elevated prevents him from raising it, for fear of the concussion arising from such action. Thus he moves with short steps, his feet scarcely raised from the ground, and is, in consequence, frequently tripping and stumbling. The tenderness, however, in his fore-feet produces also a carefulness of action: he throws his weight habitually upon his haunches; and such horses are not, therefore, so liable to fall as might, upon observing their motion, be supposed. As the disease goes on, the muscles of the shoulder become wasted, from the pain and irritation in the feet, and from the confinement of the action produced as above described. This change in the muscles of the shoulder has long proved a powerful source of deception to the farrier and proprietors of horses. The evident alteration in the muscles of the shoulder, and the apparent total absence of any morbid change in any other part of the limb or foot, afford to them a demonstrative evidence of the seat of the disease; hence the term "shook in the shoulders." But the physiological veterinarian takes another view of the case; he knows that, if a person has a disease in the finger, and he is thereby prevented for a time from using the muscles of the arm, absorption of the muscles takes place, and they become shrunk more or less according to the duration and severity of the disease. Such is the view which he will take of the case in question; and, instead of proceeding to rowel in the chest, blow the shoulder, insert a seton, blister, peg, or bore it with a redhot iron (as is but too frequently the case for this effect of the disease), he will direct his attention to the foot, where the cause of all this mischief resides The wasting of the muscles of the shoulder, and the apparent freeness of the foot and limb from disease, is to him the strongest proof of the nature and seat of the injury. From these alone he is frequently obliged to form his opinion; and in cases of lameness in the fore-feet, which have existed for a few weeks, he will, in ninety-nine cases in a hundred, be correct in his opinions, with no other proof than the symptoms described. In those cases where only one foot is affected, the hoof, in addition to the other symptoms, generally becomes contracted, and smaller than the other, and thus serves as a guide to the seat of this hidden and deep-seated disease. From what has been stated regarding the nature and seat of this disease, some idea may have been already formed of the difficulties that must occur in our attempts to remove it. If once the navicular bone has become ulcerated, and adhesion has taken place between it and the tendon, or if even ossific particles have been deposited on the articular cartilage, all our efforts to effect a radical cure are futile and useless; all we can expect to accomplish, in such cases, is a mitigation of the animal's sufferings. Our attention ought, therefore, to be directed to the earliest stages of the complaint, while as yet there is only inflammation in the synovial membrane, if we wish or expect to effect a cure of navicular lameness. Our treatment must be regulated by the causes which have operated to produce the disease in each of the individual cases which occur. In all cases, however, it must appear evident, that, in a part so much exposed to action as the navicular capsule is, rest must be of the first importance in the early stages of the complaint. Topical bleeding must also be allowed to be of equal importance; and this may be effected either by bleeding in the toe, or opening the pastern veins, or both may be opened with advantage; and although leeches have not been much tried in veterinary practice, a dozen might prove a useful auxiliary, if applied in the hollow of the pastern; and these means should be repeatedly had recourse to in severe and obstinate recent Even general bleeding and purging may be of service, as means of diminishing inflammatory action. The foot should be kept in a warm emollient poultice for some time, or cold lotions may be constantly applied to the pastern and foot; even an ice-poultice, several times repeated, might be used with advantage. Should these fail, blisters are next to be tried; and cases. they should be applied all round the coronet and pastern, and several times repeated; for it frequently happens that, although the lameness may be removed by a single blister, the symptom returns when the animal is put to exercise, showing plainly that the disease had not yet been completely subdued. The blister ought, therefore, to be repeated, as a means of preventing the recurrence of the lameness, and to insure a more effectual cure. Nor ought the failure of success in the application of one or two blisters altogether to discourage the repetition of them; for I have not unfrequently seen a successful termination of cases even after having had occasion to repeat the blisters five or six times. The blisters must be freely applied in the hollow of the pastern, for, being nearer the immediate seat of the disease, they produce a greater effect upon it than if more remote, Nor need we be afraid of any unpleasant effects or blemishes taking place in this part more than any other, if a proper blister is used. If, after a fair trial of blisters, a cure has not been effected, firing round the coronet and in the pastern may be tried; but if blisters fail in giving relief, firing is seldom attended with success. Where they have failed, a seton is frequently passed through the frog. The seton is made to pass from the pastern down through the centre of the frog, so as to exert a deep-seated counter irritation, and a discharge of matter from parts closely connected with the seat of the disease; and this discharge may be kept up by continuing the seton in the frog for a fortnight or three weeks. In this treatment, however, I have not much confidence. Throughout the use of the various plans of treatment which I have mentioned, the greatest attention ought to be paid to the reduction of the inflammation in the other parts of the foot, as this greatly assists in effecting a cure. The sole of the hoof should be well pared, to allow of ease and liberty to the soft parts with in. The shoe ought either to be removed or applied so as to give no restraint to the action of the hoof during the progress of cure, either by being put loosely on with few nails, or by a jointed shoe applied to the foot. The toe of the hoof ought to be made as low and short as it will admit of, and the heels left uncut, by which means the limb is brought more to the perpendicular line, and the force upon the seat of the disease in an equal proportion removed; and the hoof may be softened by making the animal stand for several hours a-day in a trough with hot water. Such is a summary of what may be tried in the earlier stages of this disease; and although an endless variety of plans of treatment have been from time to time brought forward, and are still frequently adopted, with a view of enlarging the hoof and removing contraction, it will, I think, appear evident, if I have given a correct view of the nature of the affection, that all or most of them have been applied to remove merely an effect of the disease. For this reason, I have not brought forward or recommended the various plans of scoring the hoof, rasping the quarters, paring the heels, and giving the frog pressure, nor the different expanding shoes to enlarge the hoof; because, having shown that the contraction of the hoof is commonly an effect of the navicular disease, and that, in all cases of continued lameness from contraction, the navicular synovial capsule is the seat of the disease, the enlargement of the hoof cannot by any possibility remove it when once established in this part. If, therefore, the means which I have already recommended are not sufficient to remove the lameness, the animal must be pronounced a confirmed "grogg." Should he be reduced to such a state, and be unable to perform a reasonable degree of work, or be otherwise unpleasant from the lameness he exhibits, the only alternative is to have him unnerved an operation by which the foot is deprived of its nervous energy and feeling, by which the animal, unconscious of the existence of disease or pain in his feet, goes on doing his work, in many instances, for a considerable number of years, with apparent ease and freedom. But although this operation gives immediate relief from pain and lameness, unpleasant effects frequently soon follow. The operation of unnerving consists in making an incision through the integuments (skin), at or below the fetlock, on each side of the leg, and having exposed the nerves going to the foot, they are first divided, and a portion, about an inch or upwards in length, is dissected out. But as the operation requires some anatomical knowledge, and can only be properly performed by a person acquainted with anatomy, I need not enlarge further upon the method of operating. |