MALTREATMENT OF THE HORSE'S FOOT. 



631 



to do, only contracted ; the tender horn, ruthlessly ex- 

 posed by the drawing-knife to rapid desiccation and other 

 abnormal conditions, rapidly shrank, dried, and lost its 

 healthy properties ; from this arose various disorders, such 

 as contracted heels, fissures in the horn, wasting of the 

 frogs, and even more deep-seated maladies of the foot. 

 Or if the unfortunate creature was put to severe exertion, 

 the tremendous strain thrown upon the anterior and 

 lateral parts of the foot readily set up congestion or in- 

 flammation of the v^ascular textures uniting the hoof to 

 the bone within, and flat or convex soles, deformed 

 wall, lameness, and partial or total inefficiency was the 

 result. 



This will be rendered more apparent, perhaps, if we 

 show a section of the anterior portion of a foot pared to 

 * thumb-springing,' and shod with an ordinary shoe 

 (fig. 204). 



This most injurious fashion of 

 cutting away the sole and frog, and 

 deeply notching the heels, is still 

 largely in vogue in Britain ; though 

 in the army it has been for many 

 years abolished, and the results of a 

 rational method of shoeing are most 

 marked in the diminution of foot-lameness, and the 

 maintenance of the hoofs in a natural and serviceable 

 condition. 



So far as the integrity of the foot is concerned, there 

 can scarcely be any doubt that the primitive farriery of 

 the early races of Gaul and Britain was preferable to that 

 of modern days, when this excessive mutilation of the 



204 



