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The seat of greatest congestion will always be found in the neighborhood of the toe, because of the increased vascularity of that part, and, although at times it is limited to the podophyllous tissue alone, any or all parts of the keratogenous membrane may be affected by the congestion and followed finally by inflammation.

THE KERATOGENOUS, OR HORN-PRODUCING MEMBRANE, is in reality an extension of the dermis of the digit.

Treatment.—The treatment of acute laminitis in its early stage must be based upon the fact that we have to deal with a congested state of the circulatory apparatus of the whole of the keratogenous membrane.

Posteriorly the cavity is bounded by the front of the os pedis, and is lined by a thin growth of horn secreted by the keratogenous membrane covering the bone.

The altered character of the horn is accounted for by the inflammatory changes in the sensitive laminæ and the papillæ of the keratogenous membrane generally, for it follows as a matter of course that these tissues, themselves in a diseased condition, must naturally produce a horn of a greatly altered and inferior quality.