380 INFLAMMATION OF THE FOOT, OR ACUTE FOUNDER, 



and answering several important purposes, being an elastic bed mi which i the navi- 

 "L bone afd the tendo'n (see page 345) can play with security and wrthou 

 concussion or shock, by which all concussion communicated to the cartilages a. 

 the foo tare destroyed-by which these cartilages are kept asunder and the expan- 

 tn the upper part of the foot preserved. As the descent of the sole mcreases 

 he w dth of the lower part of the foot, so the elevation of the frog a portion of . 

 it being pressed upward and outward by the action of the navicular bone and 

 tendon, causes the expansion of its upper part. Prec^ely as the strong muscle 

 peculiar to quadrupeds at the back of the eye (seepage 127), bemg forcibly 

 contracted, presses upon the fatty matter in which the eye is ""bedded which 

 may be displaced, but cannot be squeezed into less compass and which, bemg 

 forced towards the inner comer of the eye, drives before it that important and 

 beautiful mechanism the haw, so the elastic and yielding substance the frog, 

 being pressed upon by the navicular hone and the tendon, and the pastern, and 

 refusing to be condensed into less compass, forces itself out on either side of them, 

 and expands the lateral cartilages, which again, by their inherent elasticity, 

 recur to their former situation, when the frog no longer presses them outward. 

 It appears, that by a different mechanism, but both equally admirable, and 

 referable to the same principle, viz. that of elasticity, the expansion of the upper 

 and lower portions of the hoof are effected, the one by the descent of the sole, 

 the other by the compression and rising of the frog. 



It is this expansion upward, which contributes principally to the preservation 

 of the usefulness of the horse, when our destructive methods of shoeing are so 

 calculated to destroy the expansion beneath. In draught horses, from the long 

 continued as well as violent pressure on the frog, and from the frog on the carti- 

 lage, inflammation is occasionally produced, which terminates in the cartUages 

 being changed into bony matter. 



CHAPTER -XIX. 

 THE DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 



Of these there is a long list. That will not be wondered at by those who 

 have duly considered the complicated structure of the foot, the duty it has to 

 perform, and the injuries to which it is exposed. It will be proper to commence 

 with that which is the cause of many other diseases of the foot, and connected 

 with almost all. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE FOOT, OR ACUTE FOUNDER. 

 The sensible lamina?, or fleshy plates on the front and sides of the coffin-bone, 

 being replete with blood-vessels, are, like every other vascular part, liable to 

 inflammation, from its usual causes, and particularly from the violence with 

 which, in rapid and long-continued action, these parts are strained and bruised. 

 When in a severely contested race they have been stretched to their utmost, 

 while, at the fullest stride of the horse, his weight has been thrown on them 

 with destructive force ; or, when the feet have been battered and bruised in a 

 hard day's journey, it will be no wonder if inflammation of the over-worked 

 parts should ensue, and the occurrence of it may probably be produced and the 

 disease aggravated by the too prevalent absurd mode of treating the animal. If 

 a horse that has been ridden or driven hard is suffered to stand in the cold, or if 

 his feet are washed and not speedily dried he is very likely to have " fever in 



