432 PLANTAR SYSTEM. 



of the commissures. Looking into the interior of the hoof, we 

 discover that the commissures, internally, are converted into 

 rounded promontories, similar in appearance and texture to the 

 one in the middle— the frog-stay— on the sides of which they are 

 rising. In the natural state, the commissures must unavoidably 

 get plugged with dirt, or whatever the animal may happen to 

 tread upon ; a circumstance from which some far-fetched notions 

 have been extracted concerning their use. 



THE TOE or Point of the Frog, is the anterior, undi- 

 vided, elongated portion ; that which forms the apex of the 

 pyramid or wedge — the acute or extended angle of the triangle — 

 the only part displaying that prominent or rounded form that 

 would warrant us in using the epithet " conical" to the frog. It 

 possesses solidity of substance, firmness of texture, and lux- 

 uriance of growth in an eminent degree ; facts well known to 

 the farrier, who, in paring the foot, seldom fails to make more 

 free with this than any other part of the frog. 



THE HEELS or bulbs of the frog are the posterior protube- 

 rant parts embraced by the heels of the wall, and separated from 

 each other by the cleft, forming, together, the base of the wedge 

 or triangle. They present greater depth of substance than the 

 toe, but are of a softer, more spongy texture, and are less resist- 

 ing and stable, in consequence of being deprived of mutual sup- 

 port by the division of the cleft. Anteriorly, the heels unite with 

 the lateral prominences bounding the cleft; inferiorly, they 

 present two surfaces of tread to the ground, evidently designed 

 to take a share in the bearing of the foot; posteriorly and supe- 

 riorly, they exhibit a bulbous fulness, in consequence of receiving 

 at this part a supplementary covering from a production which 

 has been (in the description of the wall) adverted to, under the 

 appellation given it by Mr. Clark, of 



Coronary Frog-band. — It was there stated, that the coronary 

 groove (the groove or canal in the coronary border of the cutis) 

 broadened considerably as it descended to and turned round upon 

 the heels ; in like manner does the horny band produced by 

 it broaden, and not only grow broader but thicker in substance, 

 and consequently in the same degree augments the substance of 

 the heels, occasioning that swell of them which has suggested the 

 appellation of "bulb." The horny band itself is every where 

 lamellated upon its internal surface ; but these broadened parts 

 of it display lamellse of a much bolder character, and conse- 

 quently render their union with the heels so much the more 

 intimate and enduring. The inferior edge of the band is denti- 

 culated, and the denticulations become so interlaced with the 

 lamellated fibres of the wall, that their union is rendered, in the 



