SHOEING. 



73 



Nine tenths of the workmen who resort to this practice cannot explain its object, 

 and those who have written in defense of it say it is to allow the descent of the sole 

 and facilitate the lateral expansion of the hoof. 



"Fancy our gardeners cutting and rasping the bark off our fruit-trees, to assist 

 them in their natural functions, and improve their appearance ; and yet the bark is 

 of no more vital importance to the tree than the horn of the sole wall and frog are 

 to the horse's foot. 



Fig. 583.— Quarter-crack. 



Fig. 584. — Effect of Founder. 



" The sole, frog, and bars must on no account, nor under any conditions, unless those 

 of a pathological nature, he interfered uitJi in any way by knife or rasp. As certainly 

 as they are interfered with, and their substance reduced, so surely will the hoof be 

 injured. Nature has made every provision for the defense. They will support the 

 contact of hard, soft, rugged, or even sharp bodies, if allowed to escape the drawing- 

 knife ; while hot, cold, wet, or even dry weather has little or no influence on the in- 

 terior of the foot, or on the tender horn, if man does not step in to beautify the feet 

 by robbing them of their protection, perhaps merely to please the fancy of an ig- 

 norant groom or coachman. 



"If we closely examine the upper surface 

 of the sole of a hoof that has been separated 

 from its contents by maceration, we will find 

 it perforated everywhere by myriads of mi- 

 nute apertures, which look as if they had been 

 formed by the point of a fine needle. If we 

 look also at the vascular parts of the foot that 

 have been in contact with this horny surface, 

 it will be observed that they have been closely 

 studded with exceedingly fine, yet somewhat 

 long, filaments, as thickly set as a pile of the 

 richest Genoa velvet. These are the villi, or 

 papillas, which enter the horny cavity, and 

 fitting into them like so many fingers into a 

 glove, constitute the secretory apparatus of 

 the frog as well as the sole. Each of the 

 filaments forms a horn tube or fibre, and pass- 

 es to a certain depth in a protecting canal 

 whose corneous wall it builds. When injected 

 with some colored preparation, one of them 

 makes a beautiful microscopical object, appearing as a long, tapering net-work oi 

 blood-vessels, surrounding one or two parent trunks, and communicating with each 

 other in a most wonderful manner. These filaments are also organs of tact, each 



Fig. 585.— Shoe for Quarter-crack. 



