CONSTRUCTION OF FEET OF DEEE. 31 



beat any dog in such oblique paths as I have mentioned. 

 The hardness and sharp edges of their hoofs give them 

 great tenacity, and prevent their suffering from the stones ; 

 whilst a dog, having no fence against injury, is obliged to 

 slacken his pace. 



The bone of a deer's foot is small and particularly hard ; 

 it is this peculiar construction which renders the animal as 

 strong as he is fleet. The support and strength of the 

 joints of the feet of all animal bodies, according to Sir 

 E. Home, depend less upon their own ligaments than upon 

 the action of the muscles whose tendons pass over them. 

 " This fact," he says, " was strongly impressed on my 

 mind, in the early part of my medical education, by seeing 

 a deer which leaped over the highest fences, and the joints 

 of whose feet, when examined, were as rigid in every other 

 direction, but that of their motion, as the bone itself: but 

 when the tendo Achilles which passed over the joint was 

 divided, with a view to keep the animal from running away, 

 the foot could readily be moved in any direction, the joint 

 no longer having the smallest firmness." 



Some old authorities attribute various medicinal virtues 

 to certain parts of the hart; and, amongst the rest, the 

 author of the Treatise on Venerie very gravely asserts, 

 " That his marrow or grease is good for the gout pro- 

 ceeding from a cold cause, melting it, and rubbing the 

 place where the pain is therewith. Also the hart first 

 taught us to find the herb called Dictamus ; for when he 

 is stricken with an arrow or dart, he seeketh out that herb, 

 and eateth thereof; the which maketh the dart or arrow 

 to fall out, and healeth him immediately." 



Almost every part of the deer is excellent for the table : 



