814 



DISEASES AND THEIE TKEATMENT. 



testify. The front of the lower surface of the coffin-bone, upon 

 which alone the limb rested, had become absorbed, the object being 

 to constitute a straight column, since the parts were incapable of 



performing any of the 

 motive functions of the 

 healthy foot, for leverage 

 effect. The hoof necessa- 

 rily took the vertical line 

 of form with the whole 

 region the heels were 

 deep. All bearing was 

 conveyed to the point at 

 which part the shoe was 

 worn, proving that the an- 

 imal had been worked to 

 the last in the state in 

 which the foot was found 

 after death, there being 

 no signs of recent change 

 in the case, nor any means 

 of relief having been re- 

 sorted to. 



This figure, No. 718, in 

 some of its phases, is a 

 repetition of the last (not 

 included because not of 

 sufficient interest to be desirable), for the deplorable barbarity 

 practiced, of which it affords the most conclusive evidence. 



The specimens from which the drawing 

 was taken, the hoof and navicular bone, 

 are those of the fore foot of a fine mare, 

 apparently thorough-bred, which I was in 

 the habit of seeing with mingled feelings 

 of pity, and admiration of her form, as she 

 worked a cab in Edinburgh seven years 

 ago. The navicular bone, as is plainly 

 shown, was extensively wasted and ulcer- 

 ated. The mare, long before her death, 

 which, like that of the previous case, was 

 caused by the torture she endured, had 

 been the victim of inveterate chronic lame- 

 ness, which could have been readily re- 

 lieved, but progressively advanced from 

 bad to worse. Eeduction of the hoof by 

 cutting induced absorption of the lower surface of the coffin- 

 bone, and also that of the navicular bone; until, as in the previous 

 case, the knife repeatedly employed destroyed the hoof first, then 

 the cartilage, and, lastly, reached to the navicular bone and the 

 joint, the latter injury proving fatal to life. 



Fig. 719 shows the state of the lower surface of the coffin-bone j 



FIG. 719. 



FIG. 720. 



