hen the feet separate the injury takes
place. In its movement backwards the inner border of the shoe of the
hind-foot catches the coronet of the fore, and tears it backwards with it.
Quite frequently a portion of the skin is removed entirely, but often it
hangs as a triangular flap. The flap in such a case is always attached by
its hindermost edge, and indicates plainly enough that the direction of the
blow that cut it must have been from before backwards.

Although ordinarily inflicted at the gallop, the same injury may,
nevertheless, be caused by allowing a fast trotter, and one with extreme
freedom of action behind, to push forward at the utmost limit of his pace.
The outside heel is the one most subject to the injury.

While the common form of injury to the coronet is, as we have described,
that occasioned by the animal's own shoe, or that of a companion, it is
evident that the foot is also open to similar injuries from quite outside
sources. Falls of the shafts when unyoking animals from a heavy cart, blows
or wounds from the stable fork, wounds resulting from the foot becoming
fixed in a gate or a fence, either may equally well set up the mischief.

Apart from severe injury, a particularly troublesome form of coronitis may
arise from the condition of the roads. We refer to the conditions attendant
on a thaw after snow. The animal is called upon to labour in, or perhaps
stand for long periods in, a mixture of snow and water, or snow and mud.
That this must have a prejudicial effect upon the structure of the coronet
is plain. The circulation of the part, already predisposed to sluggishness
by reason of its distance from the heart, is farther impeded by the
action of the cold. Small abrasions of the skin, so small as to scarce
be noticeable, are in this case freely open to infection with the septic
matter the mud contains. Necrosis and consequent sloughing of the skin
is bound to follow, and an extensive ulcerous wound, or a spreading
suppuration of the coronary cushion is the result.

_Symptoms_.--We will take first the case in which no actual wound is
observable. Here the first indication of the trouble is the appearance
of an inflammatory swelling, confined usually to one side, but extending
sometimes to the whole of the coronet. Always the part is hot and tender,
and with it the patient is lame--so much so, in many cases, as to be unable
to put the foot to the ground, the toe alone being used.

In a mild case,