FAULTY CONFORMATION 157 



owner that, by reason of the length projecting, the shoe is 

 liable to be torn off. 



Should the ' knuckling over ' have become complicated 

 by bony deposits round the seat of the original injury, then 

 a favourable modification of the condition is not so likely 

 to result. 



The benefit to be derived from the shoe with an extended 

 toe-piece in a case of excessive knuckling is admirably 

 shown in a brief report of a case, under the title of ' Hooked 

 Foot,' in vol. xiv. of the Veterinary Record, p. 716: 



' An eighteen months' old filly showed a deformity of the 

 third phalanx, resulting in her walking with the front face 

 of the hoof on the ground. The flexors were apparently all 

 right, and the bending back seemed to be due to contraction 

 of the ligaments of the joint and the sheath of the 

 perforans. 



' On the ground of absence of contraction of the flexors, 

 or atrophy and paralysis of the extensors, the surgeon con- 

 sidered the lesion curable by simple orthopaedic measures. 

 By means of an elongated toe-piece to the shoe and calkins, 

 which were shortened every fifteen days, the filly was com- 

 pletely cured in seventy days.' 



IT. THE CROOKED FOOT. 



(a) The Foot with Unequal Sides. 



Definition — The foot thus affected has one side of the 

 wall higher than the other. 



Symptoms.-— -This deformity is the better recognized when 

 the foot on the floor is viewed from behind. In addition to 

 the difference between the height of the inner and outer heel 

 is seen at once a deviation in the normal direction of the 

 horn. That of the higher side is distinctly more upright 

 than that of the lower, and runs from above downwards 

 and inwards towards the axis of the foot, while the horn of 

 the lower side maintains its normal direction of downwards 

 and outwards. 



