\ PLANTAR SYSTEM. 421 



aspect. It is an old observation, and one that passes current 

 among us at the present day, that black or dark-shaded hoofs 

 possess greater strength and durability, and indicate less prone- 

 ness in the feet to disease, than such as are composed of white or 

 striped horn. The rationale of which appears to be, that white 

 horn (the same as white hair) is the product of parts weaker by 

 nature than such as produce dark or black horn, and, being 

 weaker, consequently are more liable to disease, less able to resist 

 those impressions that tend to disorder. White hoofs are m^e 

 porous than black ones, and consequently absorb moisture and 

 lose it again by evaporation with more facility : a fact that may 

 probably aid us in accounting for the failures attributed to them. 



Magnitude. — It requires no veterinary skill to discover any very 

 material disproportion in the magnitude of the foot : it will strike 

 lis at once as being large or small, in comparison to the limb or 

 the size of the animal. A foot of any description that is out of 

 proportion is to the horse possessing it more or less objectionable : 

 but for all that, these out-of-proportion feet, abstractedly con- 

 sidered, have their advantages as well as their disadvantages. 

 Sainbel tells us, that a large wide hoof, by extending the surface 

 of tread, " will increase the stability and firmness of the fabric;" 

 but then, he adds, " this partial advantage grows into an evil 

 when it becomes applied to a body capable of translation, and 

 considered in a state of actual motion ; because, then, the n)ass 

 and weight of the foot overburthen the muscles of the extremity." 

 And because, I would add, the surfaces of contact being greater, 

 the attraction of cohesion becomes greater, and so much the more 

 muscular force is required to raise the foot (particularly in moist 

 ground) from the earth. Besides which, a large foot is apt to 

 become objectionable from its striking, during action, the oppo- 

 site leg. On the other hand, it is contended, that a large foot 

 will not sink so deep into soft ground as a small one, and conse- 

 quently vvill not demand so great an effort of strength to draw it 

 out. This is an argument, however, that can only hold good under 

 the supposition, that in both cases the muscular strength is equal, 

 which we know but rarely to happen ; in general, broad or flat- 

 footed horses possessing superior strength; small narrow-footed 

 ones, superior speed. There cannot be a doubt about a large 

 foot being unfavourable for speed ; a small one for stability : 

 neither one nor the other can be indiscriminately found fault with ; 

 both within certain limits possess their respective advantages; 

 though to turn out as such, they each of them require to be com- 

 bined with suitable conformation and action. 



Large bulky hoofs are found to be mechanically weaker than 

 others, in consequence of being composed of a thin, soft, porous 



