426 



THE HORSE. 



FlG. 20. A SOUND FORE FOOT PREPARED FOR THE SHOE. 



A. The heel of the crust. E E. The angles between the heels and bars 



B. The toe. where corns appear. 

 C C. The quarters of the crust. F F. The concave surface. 

 DD. The bars as they should be left with GG The bulbous heels. 



frog between them. H. Cleft. 



form, and a dished coffin bone ; under a convex sole a coffin bone 

 turned up in front by absorption and flattened like the hoof, spongy 

 and deficient in bony matter, the sensible sole diminished and the 

 horny sole increased in substance ; in long-standing cases of con- 

 tracted heels, the interior organizations are alike reduced. Which- 

 ever may be the primary change, internal or external, or whether 

 either be a result of bad shoeing, no satisfactory solution has yet 

 been given. Veterinarians wrangle over their favorite theories, 

 charge one another with causing the diseases they profess to pre- 

 vent, and are so completely antagonistic in their doctrines, that 

 the public cannot be confident of truth, in implicit reliance upon 

 the assertions of any. 



In comparing the horse's foot with the human, we must be care- 

 ful not to fall into error ; their relations to the body are the same, 

 but to understand the comparative structures, we must imagine 

 ourselves upon all fours, resting upon the finger and toe nails, our 



