316 THE MOUNTAIN. 



(SEE ANTE, p. 811, at *) 



The horse's foot is an interesting anatomical structure. In the 

 domesticated state, this living, elastic mass, is used as a sledge-ham- 

 mer for pulverizing rocks, that is, the hoof is driven over, and 

 jammed against stony surfaces, impelled by the enormous momentum 

 of from seven to eighteen hundred pounds (the range of weights of 

 the animal in general use) in rapid motion. This living mallet (foot) 

 is composed of bones, ligaments, blood-vessels, nerves, and a lami- 

 nated elastic fibro-cartilaginous structure, (with anatomical cha- 

 racters peculiar to the solipeds,) in the form of plates, or blades, 

 which coalesce or dovetail with a similarly laminated extension of the 

 horny elements of the hoof, uniting the last bone of the extremity 

 with the hoof, which is also alive or full of nerves and blood-vessels 

 to a point called the "quick," all being enveloped in a dead insensi- 

 ble, but still elastic crust, the outer layer of the foot, to which free 

 expansion is given by a spongy cushion or hinge called the frog, 

 also destitute of sensibility, uniting the sides of the sole of the foot, 

 or point of contact of the animal, with the earth. This body receives 

 all the vibrations of the crust, and is the centre of all contractions 

 and expansions of the hoof. To prevent the destruction of the whole 

 mallet, it is faced with a rim of iron, as a hammer is rendered inde- 

 structible by a facing of steel. The elasticity of the hoof destroyed, 

 the foot becomes lame, and is finally useless. To the reflecting mind, 

 then, the arming of the horses foot with iron is no longer a mere me- 

 chanical nailing of a curved bar of metal on a stick of timber. The 

 shoeing of the horse is an art, requiring scientific knowledge and 

 great mechanical skill, scarcely ever possessed by the common smith. 

 Hence the wholesale destruction of the hoof and constantly fatal 

 damaging of that noble animal. 



