40 



this ligament. This, of course, would include the horny lam- 

 inae. I dissent from this opinion for the following reasons: 



The wall is composed of two kinds of material, the fibrous, 

 and a non-fibrous matrix, which bind the fibres firmly into the 

 solid mass of horn which constitutes the wall of the foot. I 

 am not aware of any secreting structure that secretes more 

 than one specific secretion in a healthy acting condition. But 

 if there should be, it would not be a sufficient reason for 

 attributing the functions of secreting two such widely different 

 substances as compose the walls, to the coronary secreting lig- 

 ament. Each fibre of the wall is fed by its connecting papilla. 

 Besides, we are not left in doubt as to where the matrix comes 

 from. I think that is just as demonstrable as the source of 

 the horny fibres. The vascular laminae have not a merely me- 

 chanical connection with the non-vascular horny laminae — but 

 a secreting function, and it is from this source that the homo- 

 geneous or non-fibrous portion of the wall is derived. If an 

 experimental proof of this is demanded, examples are numerous 

 enough in cases of False-Quarter, and those cases where the 

 hoof has been torn off by violence and the coronary ligament 

 partially or wholly destroyed. In False-Quarter, for instance, 

 the coronary ligament is injured or destroyed, and we have but 

 a thin non-fibrous horny secretion composing the quarters, 

 frequently too weak to sustain the weight of the animal, which 

 could come from no other source than the vascular laminae. 



« 



REASONS VERSUS IPSE DIXITS. 



In cases where the entire hoof has been torn off while the 

 vascular laminae remain otherwise uninjured, a non-fibrous 

 horny material will be deposited all over the sensitive laminae 

 in a few weeks. Does this come from the coronary ligament? 

 It can not, as ten or twelve months will scarcely suffice for the 

 growth of horn from the top to the bottom of the foot. I 

 think these experimental facts too well known to need any 

 further exemplification. Mr. Fleming, in his recent work on 

 Practical Horse-shoeing, asserts that the latter view is an error, 

 " as the microscope, physiology, and pathological experience, 



