2 HOUSE AND MAX. 



Now, in the first place, the hoof is riot the foot, 

 but only the extremity of a portion of the foot. In 

 the second place, instead of being a lump of horn, 

 it is one of the most elaborate pieces of mechanism 

 in the whole of the animal kingdom. In the third 

 place, it is an integral portion of an entire and 

 symmetrical organisation ; each part being connected 

 with and dependent upon all the others, and all 

 subservient to the great object of procuring food. 



No one part could be altered without changing 

 all the others. To put an extreme case : Suppose 

 that the teeth of the horse were exchanged for those 

 of the lion, the hoof would be useless, as it could 

 not secure living prey. The stomach would be use- 

 less, because it would be incapable of digesting raw 

 flesh, and the teeth, from their structure, would be 

 unable to masticate, and therefore could not chew 



grass. 



Conversely, if the hoof were exchanged for lion's 

 paws and talons, they would be quite unsuited to the 

 pastures in which the horse finds its food, and so the 

 teeth would have to be altered. 



Now let us see what is the general structure of 

 the horse, and what relationship is borne to it by 

 the hoof. The accompanying illustration represents 

 the bony framework of the horse. It was drawn 

 from the skeleton of the celebrated racehorse 



