94 CONTLUDTXO OESETIVATIOXS. 



and widens the base of the foot ffenerallv. But, 

 according to Mr. Coleman's view, he only desires 

 or expects the alternate expansion and contraction 

 of the hoof posteriorly to the last heel nail in each 

 quarter. 



Mr. Strickland Freeman saw the elasticity of 

 of this organ more accurately, and thus expresses 

 himself at page 3 of his work : — ^' The hoof of the 

 fore foot of the horse produces an elasticity con- 

 tinued from the quarters to the point of the toe." 



By a succession of three bones, the large and 



small pastern and coffin bone, with their respective 



oblique articulations, the line of bearing is diverted 



from the perpendicular ; and I am convinced that 



The coffin bone the coflfiu bonc, uudcr the impression of weight and 



considered as a . , . ^ . . •, . , , 



wedge and di- action combmcd, IS impacted mto the hoof, and 



lator of the , , ' r >^ 



hoof. driven like a wedge to the uttermost extremity of 



the toe of the horny cavity ; and that this bone, the 

 fac-simile of the hoof in shape, is the grand wedge 

 and never-failing dilator of the hoof at all parts ; 

 even admitting that the oblique direction of some 

 of the fibres of the laminae appear to favour the 

 movement of the bone downwards and backwards. 

 I am of opinion, with other practitioners, that the 

 frog, when viewed comparatively as a mechanical 

 dilator of the foot, performs but a very subordinate 

 ofiice*. 



* Mr. Bracy Clark on the Foot of the Horse and Shoeing, part iii, 

 last edition, page 85, ol)serves most trnly, " That it is not so nujch 



