There is no cure for such a disease. The knife may remove the deformity but a larger blemish was often left as the consequence of the operation. Should such a case be known to any of the present readers, the author would advise the enlargement should be left alone, and trust placed in the absorbing powers of nature for its removal. [Illustration: A BLOOD SPAVIN, AS IT IS REPORTED TO HAVE ONCE EXISTED.] CHAPTER XIII. THE FEET--THEIR ACCIDENTS AND THEIR DISEASES. LAMENESS. Of all inventions intended to mitigate the sufferings of the horse, none, perhaps, is so generally useful as the foot-bath; certainly, not one is so decidedly beneficial in its operation. It consists merely of a wooden or iron trough, one foot deep; the shoes of the animal should, if possible, be taken off before the hoof is allowed to tread within the bath; or, if such a measure be not possible, then the burden of the horse's body should be counterpoised by means of weights. This precaution is always prudent, for, should the shod horse occasion fracture or breakage, an alarm might be excited which probably would ever after prevent the employment of the foot-bath with the same quadruped. [Illustration: A READY MEANS OF SOFTENING THE HORN, WHERE PRESSURE OF THE HOOF AGGRAVATES THE LAMENESS.] The water should always be mixed without the building; it is never well to excite an animal's fears by allowing it to witness unnecessary preparation. The author is fully aware that most people assert the horse has a very limited comprehension: so it may have; but it has an active terror, which is apt to misconstrue the simplest of motives. Whoever has seen the busy eye of the quadruped watching all that takes place around it, and noting every triviality whenever any unusual movement gives intimation to the animal that something is about to be attempted, will readily allow the need there is for excessive caution. The horse may comprehend nothing, but it is not, therefore, the less to be propitiated. Its terror has to be soothed and its confidence has to be gained; the last is soonest won by avoiding anything which possibly might excite the first. Always have the heat of the water ascertained by a thermometer. Sensation is only a relative test with regard to the presence or absence of warmth; were it not so, the coarse hand of a groom, nevertheless, might easily endure that degree of temperature which should pain the foot and leg of a horse. Let the fluid in the first instance stand at 70°; after the animal has entered the bath, gradually and without noise increase the temperature up to 90°.