52 THE HORSE. 



ral cartilages, the frog and sole, and the laminated 

 substance, at the upper part of which is placed the 

 coronary ligament. 



SECTION IX. — The defects natural or acquired 

 of the feet, and as they affect the legs, and of 

 the legs. 



The hoof too wide, flat and soft, the coronet moist and 

 swelling, the sole convex or swelling, thence termed 

 pumiced, the frog large, of too soft a consistence, and 

 liable to defluxions, or running thrushes. These are 

 obviously natural, and may be, in a considerable de- 

 gree, hereditary defects, as are also their opposites ; 

 and in a general view, each may originate in the op- 

 posite nature of the soils upon which the animals are 

 bred, notwithstanding the doubt of an able writer, 

 who seems in this case not to have allowed for the 

 exceptions to general rules. 



The opposite are deep, hard, and brittle hoofs, with 

 contracted or narrow heels, and deficient frogs. There 

 are indeed strong feet of this kind, which will bear a 

 repetition of taking down or cutting away the crust, 

 in order to lower and widen the heels ; but in general, 

 especially with southern horses and their descendants, 

 the hoof is brittle, affording an insufficient security 

 to the nails. Many of these deep and hard hoofs have 

 an excess of concavity in the sole, and are thence 

 never sound for any length of time ; starting perhaps 

 apparently sound, and becoming lame in travelling a 

 few miles. The proximate cause, in the opinion of 

 both French and English writers, is to be deduced 

 from the circumstance, that the too concave horny 



