LAMENESS, FROM VARIOUS CAUSES. .549 



son of the year permits, apply cold water to the hoofs, often and 

 freely. At night the feet are to be wiped perfectly dry, and, by 

 means of a sponge, a portion of the following mixture must be 

 rubbed on : Kerosene oil and honey, equal parts ; or neats-foot 

 oil and turpentine, equal parts. Notwithstanding the very best 

 treatment, the restoration of the foot to comparative or natural 

 soundness will be a work of time, and sometimes, in bad cases, or 

 one of long standing, an impossibility ; yet the above treatment is 

 the best we are acquainted with. Some persons prefer to use 

 moistened clay, cow-dung, etc., but they are of no value, only in 

 consequence of the moisture they contain, and clean water is far 

 preferable. 



Tlie Mechanism of the Hoof. — A brief exposition of the mechan- 

 ism of the hoof may possibly interest the reader. The external 

 covering of the foot may be divided into four parts ; namely, the 

 wall, bars, sole, and frog. The external portion, or wall, serves to 

 defend the sensitive tissues within. The wall, or hoof, is composed 

 of small filaments, or hollow tubes, consolidated in such a manner 

 as to preserve their canals distinct. These canals constitute the ex- 

 crementitious outlets of the hoof, from which morbid materials find 

 an outlet, and in these canals are found the vessels by which horn 

 is secreted or produced. The small vessels arising from the vas- 

 cular and nervous tissues of the foot proper enter, also, into these 

 canals. The bars are a continuation of the external portion just 

 described. They form an angle at the heels, which terminates to- 

 ward the toe. They thus serve to give strength and durability to 

 the hoof, and also to prevent contraction at the heels. When 

 these bars are cut away or demolished by means of the butteris, 

 then the foot often goes to "rack and ruin." The sole is much 

 more elastic than the crust, and is a medium of the sensitive fac- 

 ulty, through which, together with its powers of electricity, the 

 percussion of the foot against the ground is regulated. The frog 

 \s much more elastic than either of the parts just described. Any 

 unnecessary paring of the same is a monstrous evil. 



On the internal portion of the above-named parts we find a 

 beautiful set of leaves (laminse), resembling those found in the 

 under surface of a mushroom. Their number is said to be five 

 hundred. These articulate with a like number given off from the 

 sensitive tissues of the foot proper, each lamina? having two sides 

 and an edge, from a series of articulations, numbering three thou- 



