132 ESSAY ON SHOEING HOKSES. 



premises, I offer the following : By means of a microscope, we 

 detect on the inside of the hoof^ — superior and inferior parts — a vast 

 number of perforations, resembling the net-work of a seive ; these 

 are termed " plantar porosities." In contact with these parts are the 

 sensitive tissues, composed of slender fibres or filaments, termed 

 papillae — nipple — highly organized structures, consisting of cellular, 

 venous, arterial and nervous tissues. Supposing that we use a mi- 

 croscope which magnifies 250 times, or diameters, each papillary 

 arrangement appears of the size of four twenty-fifths of an inch, and 

 they are to be found throughout the entire circumference of the fleshy 

 sole ; the papillae are in contiguity with the porosities, and their func- 

 tion is to secrete the equivalents of organization, and thus maintain 

 the integrity of the feet. 



The porosities alluded to are the inlets, outlets, commencements, 

 and terminations of the agglutinated hollow tubes — numbering many 

 thousands — which collectively compose the wall and base of the 

 hoof Into these hollow tubes are prolongations. The latter are 

 heated, burnt, or altered in structure, when brought in contact with 

 a red-hot shoe ; hence, the function of the same must necessarily bo 

 impaired. 



In the crust, or wall of the foot, the tubular arrangement is some- 

 what perpendicular. They insidiously increase in length, in a down- 

 ward and forward direction, which gives length to the hoof In the 

 sole, the tubes are horizontal, which explains the multiplication of 

 the same, and the modus operandi of the physiological or natural 

 thickening of the sole. 



The tubes of the crust and sole are usually considered as continuous ; 

 consequently, if we cut or pare in the region of their junction, we 

 not only open their canals, but weaken their bond of union ; and in 

 such cases we must expect dislocation of the lamince, which is equiv- 

 alent to descent of sole, known as " flat, or convex feet." 



Hence, a red-hot shoe applied to the living tissues of a healthy 

 fbot, must, necessarily, contract the calibre of the porosities with 

 which it is brought in contact, and impair the function of the same. 



The reader is probably aware that moist heat does tend to relax 

 all tissues of the animal economy, and that the reverse is the case 

 when heat alone is applied ; for example, a dry floor, or a stall floor, 

 strewed with saw dust, a dry sandy beach, all abstract moisture fiom 

 moist bodies ; yet a heated shoe is a more direct absorber of moist- 

 ure than either of the above, and must, necessarily, commuuica*e an 

 undue amount of caloric to the parts. By this method, the foot is 

 not only carbonized, but afebrile or injlammatory condition is inau- 

 gurated. 



In view of sustaining the latter proposition, I introduce the follow- 

 ing evidence from a report on the subject made by a distinguished 

 professor of the veterinary art, a resident of France. By a series 

 of experiments he discovered that the hoof and the sole were con- 

 ductors of caloric ; that the conductile power of the crust was infe- 

 rior to that of the sole, (yet the latter often gets a pretty essential 

 burning whenever a horse is brought to be shod), the very part that 

 ought not to be burned. lie found, also, that it is not before the 

 lapse of four or five minutes after combustion that the thermometer 

 indicates the highest degree of heat to the foot. Also, that the 



