scurfiness of the skin; but in bad or prolonged cases, it is accompanied
with deep cracks, an ichorous discharge, more or less lameness, and even
great ulceration, and considerable fungus growth; and in the worst cases
it spreads athwart all the heel, extends on the fetlock, or ascends the
leg, and is accompanied with extensive swelling and a general oozing
discharge, of a peculiar strong, disagreeable odor.

Most of the causes of grease are referable to bad management, especially
in regard to great and sudden changes in the exterior temperature of the
heels. The feet of the horse may be alternately heated by the bedding
and cooled by draft from the open stable door; or they may first be made
hot and sensitive by the irritating action of the urine and filth on the
stable floor, and then violently reacted on by the cold breezes of the
open air, or they may be moist and reeking when the horse is led out to
work, and then chilled for a long period by the slow evaporation of the
moisture from them amid the clods and soil of the field; or they may be
warm and even perspiring with the labor of the day, and next plunged
into a stream or washed with cold water, and then allowed to dry partly
in the open air and partly in the stable; and in many of these ways, or
of any others which occasion sudden changes of temperature in the heels,
especially when those changes are accompanied or aggravated by the
irritating action of filth, grease is exceedingly liable to be induced.
Want of exercise, high feeding, and whatever tends to accumulate or to
stagnate the normal greasy secretion in the skin of the heels, also
operate, in some degree, as causes. By mere good management and by
avoiding these known causes, horse owners might prevent the appearance
of this disease altogether.

In the early, dry, scurfy stage of grease, the heels may be well cleaned
with soft soap and water, and afterwards thoroughly dried, and then
treated with a dilution of Goulard's extract--one part to eight parts of
water, or one part with six parts of lard oil. In the mildest form of
the stage of cracks and ichorous discharge, after cleansing, some drying
powder, such as equal quantities of white lead and putty (impure
protoxide of zinc), may be applied, or simply the mixture of Goulard's
extract with lard oil may be continued. In the virulent form of cracks,
accompanied with ulceration, the heels ought to be daily washed clean
with warm water, and afterwards bat