he coronet. There were two wounds on the skin--one on
the front of the coronet, the other on the inner side. From both pus and
blood had escaped. They both communicated under the skin with a large
abscess cavity. The abscess did not communicate with the joint. The pastern
bone was sound. On separating the pastern from the coronet bone the
articular surfaces were of a healthy colour, but the soft tissues
immediately surrounding them were inflamed. On the centre of the articular
surface of the coronary bone a thin red ring was noticed, and the portion
of cartilage within it seemed raised. With the point of a scalpel this
portion was lifted, and was found to be not only cartilage, but a layer of
bone completely detached from the os coronae. On removing the bones from the
hoof the rest of the bone was quite normal, as was the pedal bone.

'Fig. 158 shows the articular surface of the coronet with the fracture _in
situ_; and Fig. 159 the surface from which the broken portion is removed
and laid to the side of the foot.

'Some interesting questions arise. How was the fracture caused? When did it
occur? Between the broken portion and the main bone there was a layer of
granulation tissue, so that it is certain the injury existed before the
blister was applied, and it may possibly have existed from the commencement
of the lameness.'[A]

[Footnote A: R. Crawford, M.R.C.V.S., _Veterinary Record_, vol. viii., p.
478.]

2. FRACTURES OF THE OS PEDIS.

These also are a result of the causes we have before given. The os pedis
is also liable to fractures from pricks, from treads in the region of the
wings, and from the malnutrition and careless use of the foot sometimes
following neurectomy.

It is interesting to note that, with fracture of this bone, lameness is
nearly always excessive, but that at times it may be entirely absent.
Crepitus is, of course, denied us, and in nearly every instance the case
is only diagnosed when the lameness persists and pus commences to form, or
when grave changes in the normal shape of the foot compel our attention to
the parts. When it is the continued formation of pus that draws our notice
to something more than ordinarily grave, it is in giving exit to the pus
that the fracture is nearly always discovered.

_Reported Cases_.--Two interesting cases of fractured os pedis are reported
by Mr. Gladstone Mayall, M.R.C.V.S., in the _Veterinary Record_, vol. xiv.,
p. 54:

1. 'The horse was brought in m