HEPWORTH, ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE’s FOOT. 245 
circle. It is fibrous in texture, and the fibres pursue the 
same direction as those of the wall. 
The inferior or solar border constitutes the ground or 
wearing surface of the wall, and is the part to which the shce 
is nailed, and requires paring down every time the horse is 
shod. Such is its exuberant nature, that, like the human 
nail, were it not continually kept worn down, or broken or 
cut off, it would elongate very considerably ‘and gradually 
turn up, exhibiting forms not only of the most unsightly but 
even grotesque description, and proving incommodious to a 
degree to be almost entirely destructive of progression. 
The laminze consist of numerous narrow thin plates or pro- 
cesses, arranged with the nicest order and mathematical pre- 
cision upon the internal surface of the wall. They extend in 
uniform parallels im a perpendicular directioa from the lower 
edge of the superior border down to the line of junction of 
the wall with the sole, and are so thickly set that no part of 
the superficies remains unoccupied by them. They are like- 
wise continued upon the surfaces of the bars. In the recent 
subject they are soft, yielding, and elastic ; but from exposure 
they become dry and rigid. Every lamina exhibits two edges 
and two surfaces. By one edge it is attached to the wall; 
and the other, which is somewhat attenuated, hangs loose and 
floating within the cavity of the hoof. The surfaces, which 
are two, are smooth, and, considering the magnitude of the 
lamina itself, of enormous extent. Mr. Bracy Clark procured 
from the late Thomas Evans, Esq., LL.D., mathematical 
teacher of Christ’s Hospital, a calculation of what their united 
superficies amounted to; and it appeared to afford an increase 
of actual surface more than the simple internal area of the 
hoof would give of about twelve times, or about 212 square 
inches, or nearly one square foot and a half. Their composi- 
tion is horny. By means of its lamine, the wall presents a 
superficies of extraordinary amplitude for the attachment of 
the coffin-bone. A structure consisting of similarly formed 
laminze envelopes the bone, and these are dovetailed in such 
a manner with the horny lamine as to complete a union 
which, for concentrated strength, combining elasticity, may 
vie with any piece of animal mechanism at present known 
to us. 
The bars are processes of the wali, mflected from its heels 
obliquely across the bottom of the foot. In the natural 
healthy foot the bars appear, externally, as elongated sharp- 
ened prominences, extending from the bases of the heels into 
the centre of the foot, between the soul and the frog ; 
posteriorly, they are continuous in substance with the wall, 
