day, sometimes as late as the fifth, a doughy-feeling tumor will
be found forming on the heel or quarter. This tumor grows rapidly, feels
hot to the touch, and is extremely painful. As the tumor develops, all
the other symptoms increase in intensity; the pulse is rapid and hard;
the breathing quick; the temperature elevated 3 deg. or 4 deg.; the appetite is
gone; thirst increased; and the lameness so great that the foot is
carried if locomotion is attempted. At this stage of the disease the
patient generally seeks relief by lying upon the broad side, with
outstretched legs; the coat is bedewed with a clammy sweat, and every
respiration is accompanied with a moan. The leg soon swells to the
fetlock; later this swelling gradually extends to the knee or hock, and
in some cases reaches the body. As a rule, several days elapse before
the disease develops a well-defined abscess, for, owing to the dense
structure of the bones, ligaments, and tendons, the suppurative process
is a slow one, and the pus is prevented from readily collecting in a
mass.

I made a post-mortem examination on a typical case of this disease, in
which the animal had died on the fourth day after being found on the
range slightly lame. The suffering had been intense, yet the only
external evidences of the disease consisted in the shedding of the hoof
from the right fore foot and a limited swelling of the leg to the knee.
The sloughing of the hoof took place two or three hours before death,
and was accompanied with but little suppuration and no hemorrhage. The
skin from the knee to the foot was thickened from watery infiltration
(edema), and on the inside quarter three holes, each about one-half inch
in diameter, were found. All had ragged edges, while but one had gone
deep enough to perforate the coronary band. The loose connective tissue
beneath the skin was distended, with a gelatinous infiltration over the
whole course of the flexor tendons and to the fetlock joint over the
tendon in front. The soft tissues covering the coffin bone were loosened
in patches by collections of pus which had formed beneath the sensitive
laminae. The coffin and pastern joints were inflamed, as were also the
coffin, navicular, and coronet bones, while the outside toe of the
coffin bone had become softened from suppuration until it readily
crumbled between the fingers. The coronary band was largely destroyed
and completely separated from the other tissues of the foot. The inne