6^2 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



beautify them, by robbing them of their protection — per- 

 haps merely to please the fancy of aa ignorant groom or 

 coachman. 



The custom of paring the sole until it yields to the 

 pressure of the thumb is a barbarous one. Fortunately 

 for those who recommend it, its evil effects are not im- 

 mediately apparent ; a horse with his soles denuded of 

 their horn until the blood oozes through them, may not 

 manifest any great suffering, and even go sound on a level 

 pavement ; though, if he chances to put his foot on a 

 pebble or sharp stone, his agony may be so acute as to 

 cause him to fall. 



If we closely examine the upper surface of the sole of 

 a hoof that has been separated from its contents by macer- 

 ation, we will find it perforated everywhere by myriads 

 of minute apertures, which look as if they had been 

 formed by the point of a fine needle. If we also look at 

 the vascular parts of the foot that have been in contact 

 with this horny surface, it will be observed that they are 

 closely studded with exceedingly fine, yet somewhat long 

 filaments, as thickly set as the pile of the richest Genoa 

 velvet. These are the ' villi,' or ' papillae,' which enter the 

 horny cavities, and, fitting into them like so many fingers 

 into a glove, constitute the secretory apparatus of the frog 

 as well as the sole. Each of these filaments forms a horn- 

 tube or fibre, and passes to a certain depth in the protect- 

 ing canal, whose corneous wall it builds. When injected 

 with some coloured preparation, one of them makes a 

 beautiful microscopial object, appearing as a long taper- 

 ing network of blood-vessels surrounding one or two 

 parent trunks, and communicating with each other in the 



