166 



INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE HOOF. 



»hoeiriij-smith, to obtain a fresh lioof of a horse which has died in comparative 

 health, and having softened it in warm water, proceed to make a section there 

 otj in the same manner as I have here done. 



Fio. 1. Section op the Foot, 



This portrait of a section of the healthy hoof was taken from a freshly 

 severed foot of a five year old horse, recently killed in full health. This latter 

 remark veterinary readers will know how to appreciate, when comparing this 

 with their own preparations, which may have been derived (as generally hap- 

 pens) from the anatomy of diseased subjects, after the "blood" which should 

 have supplied fresh secretory matter has been long turned aside, or converted 

 to increase deformity. 



To the general observer, the foot of a horse inclosed in its hoof would, in- 

 deed, seem hke a corpse shut up in its coffin : and there is, certainly, no mode 

 of arriving at a knowledge how these act upon, and with, each other, than by 

 dissecting the hoof By this means the whole arcana of its construction are 

 laid open, but in no manner so intelligibly as by the section straight up and 

 down from the toe up to the coronet, and throughout between the clefts of the 

 frog and heel. This being done, the vessels which supply the juices for reno- 

 vating the wear and tear of the whole exterior are plainly bared to the view: 

 the ligaments, bones, and tendons, show their means and manner of action ; 

 and, above all, the back sinew laid flat behind the smaller pastern-bone, and 

 quite so at passing underneath the navicula, and at its insertion in the bottom 

 of the coffin-bone. On entering the hoof it acquires the term tendo palmaris 

 among the learned, but this course only serves to puzzle the general reader. 



At (a) on the coffin-bone, the general porosity thereof is much greater than 

 at any other part, being the avenue or receptacle for the blood which is diffused 

 throughout it, except on the surfoce, or border, at (bbb). The sha[)e of this 

 bone at the toe (/) is worthy of note, as being that which is best calculated to 

 give firmness of tread, fitting with the greatest nicety to the shape of the hoof; 

 01 rather, perhaps, we should say, that the shape of the hoof of a healthy ani- 

 mal should ever partake of that which we have before us, and is evidently in- 

 structive to the shoeing-smith in his final raspings, to keep clear at the toe. 

 Deviations from this rule, bring the coffin-bone nearer the surface of the hoof, 

 as is shown in fig. 3, plate 3, where the coffin-bone (c) and the wall of the 

 hoof (§•) are in contact; and even this representation, the picture of the Col- 

 lege, shows tnat the toe of the bone is much sharper than the horn, which they 

 rasp away so much at (Z), that the new shod animals go a little groggy for a 

 fhort time. 



