h. If the heels are pared away so that
all the weight is received on the frog, or if the same result is
attained by the application of a bar shoe, the animal is excessively
lame. The muscles of the leg and shoulder shrink away and often tremble
as the animal stands at rest. After months of lameness the foot is found
to be shrunken in its diameter and apparently lengthened; the horn is
dry and brittle and has lost its natural gloss, while circular ridges,
developed most toward the heels, cover the upper part of the hoof. When
both feet are affected the animal points first one foot then the other,
and stands with the hind feet well forward beneath the body, so as to
relieve the fore feet as much as possible from bearing weight. In old
cases the wasting of the muscles and the knuckling at the fetlock become
so great that the leg can not be straightened and locomotion can
scarcely be performed. The disease generally makes a steady progress
without inclining to recovery--the remission of symptoms in the earlier
stages should not be interpreted as evidence that the process has
terminated. The complications usually seen are ringbones, sidebones,
thrush, contracted heels, quartercracks, and fractures of the navicular,
coronet, and pastern bones.

_Treatment._--But few cases of navicular disease recover. In the early
stages the wall of the heels should be rasped away, as directed in the
treatment for contracted heels, until the horn is quite thin; the
coronet should be well blistered with Spanish-fly ointment, and the
patient turned to grass in a damp field or meadow. After three or four
weeks the blister should be repeated. This treatment is to be continued
for two or three months. Plane shoes are to be put on when the patient
is returned to work. In chronic cases the animal should be put to slow,
easy work. To relieve the pain, neurotomy may be performed--an operation
in which the sense of feeling is destroyed in the foot by cutting out
pieces of the nerve at the fetlock. This operation in nowise cures the
disease, and, since it may be attended with serious results, can be
advised only in certain favorable cases, to be determined by the
veterinarian.

SIDEBONES.

A sidebone consists in a transformation of the lateral cartilages found
on the wings of the coffin bone into bony matter by the deposition of
lime salts. The disease is a common one, especially in heavy horses used
for draft, in cavalry horses, cow ponies, and ot