CHAPTER Xm. 



OPERATIONS ON THE FOOT. 



ANATOMY. 



In our domestic animals we call tlie foot tlie extremity of the 

 leg, and even only the extremity of the digit, for, considered in a 

 zoological point of view, the foot extends from the carpus or tar- 

 sus to the last phalanx, inclusive. 



The foot of the horse forms an extremely imj)ortant study on 

 account of the numerous diseases to which that member is sub- 

 ject, and also of the value of the motor powers required from the 

 horse ; the old horsemen expressed this importance by the aphor- 

 ism, "no foot, no horse." This truth finds daily its sad appHcations 

 in the premature ruin of large numbers of horses rendered useless 

 because of the defects in their feet. All the quahties of a horse 

 are, indeed, considerably diminished and can even be entu-ely 

 destroyed, by the bad conformation or accidental alterations of 

 these essential organs. The study of the foot of the horse has 

 been the object of many voluminous works, such as those of Gir- 

 ard, Bouley, Bracy, Clark, Anker, Leisering & Hartman, Lafosse, 

 Gourdon, Reynal, Defays, and many others, to which we refer for 

 the more complete description of the organization of the foot. 



The organ is composed of two orders of parts, some internal, 

 organized and sensitive ; the other external, formed of a horny, 

 organic substance, the hoof, but entirely void of the property of 

 vital sensitiveness. The internal parts are bones, three in number, 

 the second and third phalanges, and the small sesamoid, which 

 form by their reunion the articulation of the foot ; special liga- 

 ments, which maintain the connections of these bones ; tendons, 

 which fiU the trij)le office of agents of transmission of motion, 

 articvilar ligaments and organs of support of the weight of the 

 body ; a fibro-cartilaginous apparatus, superadded to the third 

 phalanx, and which completes, so to sjjeak, jDOsteriorly, and 

 increases the surface by which it rests on the hoof and transmits 



