45-2 COIsCUSSION OF THE FEET. [BOOK III. 



in it, than the deposite found within the coffin-bone. 

 Now, seeing that it is at the seat of the shuttle- 

 bone, that this elastic-substance is more juicy and 

 plentiful than at any other part, and there is no 

 other means of its escaping the constant concussion 

 of the animal's tread, but by forcing its way along 

 underneath the coffin-bone, and upwards, between 

 the wall or crust of the hoof and the coffin-bone 

 (at cc), and making its way to the coronary ring 

 (at o), no doubt remains that the supply of new hoof 

 is thus carried on, and completed by its descend- 

 ing, thence sparingly, as it may be required. 



Those " concussions" before spoken of, as af- 

 fecting the action of the shuttle-bone upon the pos- 

 terior point of the coffin-bone, occasion trivial injury 

 at every step, at top pace ; more harm arises as the 

 animal is much pushed in his lengths ; then heat 

 and fever of the foot supervene, contractions follow, 

 with a train of evils that have acquired different 

 names, thirty in number, but which we have re- 

 duced by three-fourths, with a view to simplifying 

 the subject : most of these differ only in situation. 

 Very hard concussions, or a single injury of suf- 

 ficient magnitude, will produce lameness at once, 

 which most unaccountably received the name of 

 " strain of the coffin-joint," and under which general 

 misconception we shall shortly give it a moment's 

 consideration. Poor old Jeremiah Bridges prefers 

 to call it " numbness of the foot," or stunning ; 

 and he is quite as correct as those who talk of a 

 joint being strained, where there is no possibility 



