PROPERTIES OF THE HOOF. 137 



But how about the hardened glue-like substance 

 which binds the fibres together ? It is not difficult 

 to imagine that this, also, must get smashed up, 

 compressed, and its natural secretion and divinely 

 correct distribution impaired if not ruined, by tra- 

 versing it with nails, which push it on either side, 

 and reduce the space which it was intended to 

 occupy ; and this cannot fail to destroy the general 

 adhesion of the whole, even if the whole of the 

 prismatic-shaped portion in front of the nails (from 

 their heads to their clinches) were not already dead 

 — which it generally is. Thus we find that we get 

 a loose, shaky, uncemented bundle of dead fibres 

 (like a rotten broom), easily destructible ; and the 

 crust is deprived of its essential property of deaden- 

 ing the shock which it must receive at each step, 

 and of warding it off from the interior of the foot, 

 and from the leg, aided by such important adjuncts 

 as a soft, tough cushion (made further expansible 

 by being cloven) in the frog, and a strong, arched 

 sole, so made as to follow the expansion of the frog 

 by allowing its lateral buttresses to spring out at the 

 quarters, carrying with it, as a necessity, the crust 

 at the quarters to which it is attached. Mr. Lupton 

 has demonstrated that the heel and frog first reach 

 the ground. Hence these parts were made soft and ex- 

 pansible (although strong in the bars) to receive the 

 bulk of the shock, when, immediately afterwards, 

 down comes the crust, proceeding from the quarters 

 gradually to the toe, to complete the action devised 

 by that Omniscience which we fail to acknowledge. 



