76 THE ORANGE COUNTY 



horn, but are deficient in circularity of figure, with great 

 depth of substance, and are of a more durable nature. 



On account of the superior weight which it bears, the inner 

 heel wears away more quickly than the outer one. It will 

 often be scarcely necessary to remove any horn from the 

 inner heel, for that is already effected by the wear of the foot. 

 The smith frequently forgets this, and pares away all round 

 with his butteris or his knife, and thus, leaving the inner 

 quarter lower than the outer, throws an uneven bearing upon 

 it, and produces corns, sand-cracks, splints, and various 

 other evils. The depth of the horn in the front of the toe, 

 measuring from the termination of the skin, is on an average 

 about three inches or three inches and a half, and its thick- 

 ness varies from three-eighths of an inch to half an inch: but 

 near the top, and at the inside, it is found to be scooped or 

 hollowed out, and contains or covers a thickened prolonga- 

 tion, falsely called the coronary ligament, for it has no liga- 

 mentous substance belonging to it. It is a collection of 

 blood-vessels bound together by a fibrous texture, and ita 

 office is to supply any loss of substance in the hoof that may 

 be occasioned by accident or disease, and also to secrete the 

 substance of the w T all or crust of the feet. 



The crust or hoof is composed of fibres running per- 

 pendicular from the coronet to the ground in front, and 

 at the quarters, taking an oblique direction forwards. This 

 construction enables the heels to expand when they come in 

 contact with the ground, and this expansion permits the gra- 

 dual descent of the bones of the feet, and obviates much 

 concussion. It is in order that this expansion may readily 

 take place, that the crust, as has been already stated, is thin- 

 nest at the quarters and towards the heels. 



On the inside of the crust are numerous narrow, thin 

 plates, or processes, called the laminae, arranged in the 

 nicest order, and with almost mathematical precision. They 

 extend parallel to each other in a perpendicular direction 

 from immediately beneath the coronary ligament to the 

 junction of the wall with the sole, and are so thickly set that 

 every part of the crust is occupied by them. They are like- 

 wise continued over the surface of the bars, of which mention 

 will presently be made. They are about 500 in number, 

 broadest at their base, and terminating in the most delicate 

 expansion of horn. They correspond with similar leaves pro- 

 jecting from the coffin-bone, or internal bone of the hoof, and 

 thus present a most extraordinary superficies for the attach- 

 ment of the cofiin-bone. The laminae from the cofiin-bone 



