re not of very rare occurrence, their
recognition is not easy, and there is more of speculation than of
certainty pertaining to their diagnosis. The animal is very lame and
spares the injured foot as much as possible, sometimes resting it upon
the toe alone and sometimes holding it from the ground. The foot is very
tender, and the exploring pinchers of the examining surgeon cause much
pain. During the first 24 hours there is no increased pulsation in the
digital and plantar arteries, but on the second day it is apparent.

There is nothing to encourage a favorable prognosis, and a not unusual
termination is an anchylosis with either the navicular bone or the
coronet.

No method of treatment needs to be suggested here, the hoof performing
the office of retention unaided. Local treatment by baths and
fomentations will do the rest. It may be months before there is any
mitigation of the lameness.

An ultimate recovery depends to a great extent upon whether the other
foot can support the weight during the healing process without causing a
drop sole in the supporting foot.

FRACTURE OF THE SESAMOID BONES.

This lesion has been considered by veterinarians, erroneously, we think,
as one of rare occurrence. We believe it to be more frequent than has
been supposed. Many observations and careful dissections have convinced
us that fractures of these little bones have been often mistaken for
specific lesions of the numerous ligaments that are implanted upon their
superior and inferior parts, and which have been described as a "giving
way" or "breaking down" of these ligaments. In my post-mortem
examinations I have always noted the fact that when the attachments of
the ligaments were torn from their bony connections minute fragments of
bony structure were also separated, though we have failed to detect any
diseased process of the fibrous tissue composing the ligamentous
substance.

_Cause._--From whatever cause this lesion may arise, it can hardly be
considered as of a traumatic nature, no external violence having any
apparent agency in producing it, and it is our belief that it is due to
a peculiar degeneration or softening of the bones themselves, a theory
which acquires plausibility from the consideration of the spongy
consistency of the sesamoids. The disease is a peculiar one, and the
suddenness with which different feet are successively attacked, at short
intervals and without any obvious cause, seems to prove the exist