SHOEING. 



99 



laminas, or the highly-sensitive corering of the internal foot, secrete the 

 inward layer of horn, which is soft, tough, and devoid of color. 



These two opposite and distinct secretions are, by nature, joined to- 

 gether, forming one body. Now, the intimate union of opposite proper- 

 ties endues the substance, thus compounded, with the characteristics of 

 both. The hard, outward horn was needed to protect the foot against 

 those stones and rocks over which the animal was intended to journey. 

 The internal, white horn, being fastened upon this substance, acted as a 

 corrective to its harsh nature, preventing it from breaking, from splitting, 

 and from chipping, which it else must have done under the weight it was 

 destined to sustain, and when fulfilling the purposes to which the horse's 

 foot was designed to be subjected. 



Pathology has indirectly recognized the intention of this junction, by 

 acknowledging that condition to be a state of disease, wherein the two 



FALSE QUARTER, OR A DEFIOIENCT OF 

 IH£ ODI£B WALI.. 



ra ONLY POSSIBLE RELIEF FOR 

 FALSE QUARTER. 



BBCTION OF A HOBSE'S FOOT AFFECTED WITH SEEDT TOE. 



A FOOT WITH SANDCRACK. 



kinds of horn are separated. Such a division is known as a seedy toe 

 and as false quarter ; and the foot is recognized as weakened when such 

 a want of union is discovered. The outer, dark-colored horn becomes 

 more brittle ; the white, internal horn grows more soft for the want of 

 that junction by means of which each communicated its attributes to the 

 other. So also when the two descriptions of horn, although united, 

 cease to influence one another, pathology acknowledges this condition as 

 a morbid alteration, known as a changed state of hoof Thus, when a 

 sandcrack is visible, or the wall divides from the ground surface to the 



