128 TIPS AND TOE-WEIGHTS. 



must be, and there is, a reason for everything. For this purpose let 

 us see, in the first place, of what does the horse's foot consist ; then 

 the reasons for applying shoes to it at all ; then how far the old sys- 

 tem and that of the Charlier effect the objects desired ; and, finally, 

 the weight of advantage and of disadvantage attending upon each of 

 those systems. 



The foot of the horse, then, may roughly be said to be constructed 

 of a series of sensitive and insensitive stratifications, the one alter- 

 nating with the other ; the semi-circular outside wall or crust, the 

 outside sole, and the outside frog, being naturally of the insensitive 

 kind, whilst the inner semicircular crust or wall (" lamina ") the 

 inner or underlying sole, and the inner or underlying frog, are of the 

 sensitive — indeed, veiy acutely sensitive kind. This foot, as it is 

 illusti-ated with the unshod and still unimpaired colt, is strong and 

 elastic, but solid and without concavity, the well-used and developed 

 elastic frog filling up all the centre of the foot, and by its wedge-like 

 operations preventing the possibility of any contraction at heel, whilst 

 it also fully performs its valuable functions as "bufier," intended by 

 nature for the relief of the joints of the limb from jar, and the foot 

 itself from concussion, as the result of striking the hard ground with 

 rapid action. 



This elastic insensitive outside frog is also given to the horse that 

 he may have a foothold upon hard and smooth surfaces, -as I have 

 seen to demonstration in the case of unshod horses carrying heavy 

 burdens in safety over rocky tracks in the Himalaya mountains, where 

 a shod horse could not have even put in an appearance and carried 

 himself; and as I have also had experience upon the flat surface of 

 Cheapside, when neither wet nor dry. It is also quite clear that the 

 unshod horse must be vastly less liable to sprain his back sinews, the 

 developed and projecting insensitively elastic frog constituting a 

 wedge of support to a vertical pressure upon the pasterns, and thus 

 minimising the consequent leverage upon the back sinews. There 

 can be no doubt that this insensitive outside frog is highly and sensi- 

 tively accumulative, or the reverse; cleanliness and exposure to 

 healthful pressure, and of that the more the better, producing 

 growth, resulting in its full development; whilst its withdi-awal 



