810 



DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



The differences in the degree of absorption of this bone which 

 had taken place, and its consequent shortened form, will, it is pre- 

 sumed, make impression on the minds of readers. I have to state, 

 moreover, that such phenomena are not very uncommon, but often 

 lie hidden from observation within a hoof excessively prolonged 

 and turned up in front, with depressed sole. By looking at the 

 bottom surface of this bone, it may be seen that at the center, which 

 normally is the point of the deepest concavity of the arch, columns 



FIG. 714. 



of bone are formed which give attachment to the fibrous bands, 

 tendons, etc., the natural bony crest and arch being destroyed. 



The three succeeding engravings represent distinct views of the 

 same foot, one of the two fore feet of a cart-horse, both of which 

 were in precisely the same abnormal state; the history of the sub- 

 ject is known only to the extent that the limbs were obtained by 

 the author at a tan-yard in Edinburgh, where the horse had been 

 taken to be slaughtered. 



Figs. 713 and 714 show respectively a front and back view of 

 the same parts the bones of the near foot in a complete state of 

 anchylosis. I shall only attempt to give a brief description of these 

 anomalous specimens; to treat fully the causes, the conditions, and 

 the order of sequence of occurrences, would require more space than 

 can be assigned here to a single specimen or a series. 



