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term " Periople." I at one time shared the opinion of my pre- 

 ceptor in anatomy, that the frog-band was more a matter of 

 fancy than of fact, and that many ingenious carvings could be 

 made out of a horse's hoof. I have, however, a very well 

 marked specimen in which the band shows its true character 

 without any carving whatever, by the simple process of drying 

 and partial separation. A thin leather strap made to encircle 

 the hoof around its superior border, each end embedding itself 

 into the substance of the frog, it seems to me, may convey an 

 idea of its structure and uses. To my view it is precisely anal- 

 ogous in its purposes to those of the strap that embraces the 

 human instep and gives support to a clog, that is sometime 

 worn, particularly by ladies. A few moments reflection upon 

 the slender character of the attachments of the frog at its pos- 

 terior portions will show the necessity for the existence of some 

 such an arrangement as this. The following is Mr. Fleming's 

 description of this structure : 



"The Coronary jFrog-Band, or '"PeriopleJ is a continuation of 

 the more superficial layer of the skin around the coronet and 

 heels, in the form of a thin, light colored band, that descends 

 to a variable depth on the outer surface of the wall, and at the 

 back part of the hoof becomes consolidated with the frog, with 

 which it is identical in structure and texture. It can be readily 

 perceived in the hoof that has not been mutilated by the far- 

 rier's rasp, extending from the coronet, where the hair ceases, 

 to some distance down the hoof; it is thickest at the commence- 

 ment of the wall, and gradually thins away into the finest im- 

 aginable film as it approaches the lower circumference of this 

 part. When wet it swells and softens, and on being dried 

 shrinks, sometimes cracks in its more dependent parts, or be- 

 comes scaly. 



The fibres composing it are very fine and wavy, as in the 

 frog; they likewise spring from villi which project from the 

 true skin immediately above the "coronary cushion." The 

 use of this band would appear to be two-fold ; it connects the 

 skin with the hoof, and thus makes the union of these two dis- 

 similar textures more complete, its intermediate degree of den- 



