NECESSITY FOR FROG AND SOLE PRESSURE. 577 



jures the vitality, the nutrition, and the good conform- 

 ation of the foot. 



'The frog which is thrown out of its functions, says 

 Coleman, becomes diseased. It is the same with the ex- 

 ternal border of the sole and the bars when hindered from 

 contact with the ground and deprived of their normal 

 functions. When a horse has its shoes taken off, it is 

 easy to see that all these organs suffer, that they have 

 not their amplitude, their form, or their natural consist- 

 ency. Most frequently they are hard, contracted, atro- 

 phied, dried up, or rotten. In the country, where it is 

 possible to allow horses to go without shoes, and in foals 

 which have not yet been shod, with the exception of the 

 crust being worn, we see nothing abnormal ; the frogs 

 are large, the heels solid, the horn of the sole supple 

 though resisting, and all, in a word, tends to show that 

 vitality is there as in other parts of the body, and that the 

 foot receives the nutritive fluids necessary to it. 



' Having been struck for a long time with this differ- 

 ence, and the troublesome consequences which result there- 

 from, I sought in vain, like so many others, to modify the 

 actual shoe, until one day I said to myself: Since the unshod 

 horse travels perfectly well on unpaved or non-macadam- 

 ized roads, and as it is always the crust which commences to 

 break and become worn, owing to the hardness of the stony 

 streets, is it not possible to protect this wall without touch- 

 ing the other parts ? and would this not solve the problem ? 



' It was natural, therefore, that I should reflect that on 

 the handles of several instruments, on the ends of certain 

 articles, a ferrule of iron or copper was put to prevent 

 them from splitting. 



37 



