APPENDIX A. 



THE SHOEING OF OXEN. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE STRUCTUKE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE OX'S FOOT. 



As it is sometimes necessary to shoe oxen employed for work, 

 a short anatomical description of the foot may not be inappro- 

 priate. The ox's foot differs from that of the horse in possess- 

 ing two distinct toes, each consisting of three bones, like the 

 single toe of the horse, but presenting certain special anatomical 

 features of its own. The rounded or triangular horny appen- 

 dages at the posterior surface of the fetlock joint are termed 

 after-claws. They need not occupy our further attention. 



The low^er end of the metacarpal bone is divided by a deep 

 cleft into two distinct parts, an inner and an outer, each of 

 which comports itself to its particular toe just as the lower 

 end of the great metacarpus of the horse to its single toe. 

 In other words, each portion of the lower end of the metacarpus 

 presents an articular surface, which forms, with its special 

 pastern and two sesamoid bones, a distinct ginglymoid joint ; 

 the ox in fact has, at the point where the horse's fetlock joint 

 occurs, two fetlock joints. With regard to individual bones, 

 the two first bones of the toes or phalanges in form and relation 

 resemble to a considerable extent the first phalanx of the 

 horse, though they are comparatively shorter and weaker. The 

 same is true of the two coronet bones or second phalanges, 

 which are comparatively somewhat longer than the horse's 

 coronet bone, and differ from it in that their two lateral 



