132 DISEASES OF THE FEET AND LEGS. 



sage unites with an assistant flexor, but which latter is 

 principally distributed to the pastern bones, while the 

 perforans, so called because it is perforated by the as- 

 sistant flexor tendon, is inserted into the vault of the 

 coffin ; in the posterior extremities the attachments of 

 these two leading flexors and a smaller lateral one are 

 from the femur and tibia. 



" The Sensible Laminw. — Around the surface of the 

 coffin-bone, it has been noticed that there are linear 

 indentations to which about five hundred fibro-cartil- 

 aginous leaves are attached. Each of these is received 

 between two of the horny lamellae, which line the in- 

 terior of the horny hoof ; and when it is considered 

 what a vast surface of attachment is formed by these 

 means, the strength of the union will not be wondered 

 at. No common violence can separate these parts, and 

 their use as a spring (for they are extensile) to support 

 the action of an animal at once weighty, strong, and 

 extremely agile, must be apparent. 



" The vessels and nerves of the foot are derived from 

 the metacarpal arteries, veins, and nerves, which pass 

 behind the pastern, when the main trunks divide to 

 proceed to each side of the foot, and are ramified from 

 thence throughout. It is a division of the metacarpal 

 nerve on each side of the lesser pastern, or on each side 

 of the larger, as occasion suits, which forms the nerve 

 operation now in vogue as a remedy (?) for navicular 

 disease." 



Laminitis, or Fever of the Feet, although generally 

 the result of too long a journey, or any exercise where 

 excessive and continuous concussion has been occa- 

 sioned to the feet, frequently arises from other causes. 

 It is often what is termed secondary, as one of the 



