142 1I0ESE-SH0EING. 



toe to the heels ; the sole is also more concave, the frog smaller, and the 

 heels not so high. The horn is usually less hard and resisting — a 

 circumstance perhaps due to the hind feet being more frequently 

 exposed to humidity in the stable than the fore ones. 



GROWTH OF TFTE HOOF 



In any treatise on shoeing, the growth of the hoof cannot be left 

 out of consideration, as on it the foot, in an unshod condition, 

 depends for an efficient protection, while without this process the 

 farrier's art would quickly be of no avail 



In its unarmed state, the hoof being exposed to continual wear 

 on its lower surface, from contact with the ground on which the 

 animal stands or moves, is unceasingly regenerated by the living 

 tissues within. We have already referred to the special apparatus 

 which is more immediately concerned in this wovk of regenera- 

 tion, and pointed out that the wall with the laminae on its inner 

 face* is formed from the coronary cushion at the upper part of the 

 foot ; the sole from the living membrane covering the lower face of 

 the pedal bone ; and the frog from the plantar cushion. It has 

 been also mentioned that this dead horny envelope, instead of being 

 merely in juxtaposition with this exquisitely sensitive secretory mem- 

 brane, is everywhere penetrated to a certain depth on its inner face 

 (with the exception of the portion of the wall covered with the 

 horny leaves) by multitudes of minute processes named villi, which 

 are not only concerned in the growth of the horn-fibres, acting 

 as moulds for them, and endowing the hoof with that degree 

 of lightness, elasticity, and toughness, which are so necessary to its 



* It is generally stated that the horny leaves are formed by the sensitive 

 ones, with which they are in such close union. That this is an error, the 

 microscope, physiology, and pathological experience, abundantly testify. 



