]48 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HORSe’s FOOT. 
submitted to that (in this climate) necessary operation. It is 
also through it that the nails are driven which retain its 
metallic protection. 
The angles of inflexion of the wall. — Where the extremi- 
ties of the Avail are abruptly reflected inwards towards the 
interior of the cavity constituted by it, an acute angle is 
formed, which has been designated the inflexural node,” the 
<c point of the heel,” or simply “ the heel,” by our farriers, by 
the French veterinarians arc-boutant, or buttress, and by the 
Germans “ echwdndeT 
These angles of the Avail are in reality the base of the pos- 
terior part of the foot, Avhich is commonly called the heels ; 
they Serve as a support to that portion of the horny envelope 
designated the “ glomes of the frog.” Their upper part 
shoAvs the characteristic lamellar arrangement of the wall, 
and the lower contains, within its angular space, the cre- 
scent-shaped branches or extremities of the horny sole, Avith 
Avhich it contracts a most intimate union that maceration 
alone can dissolve. 
The angles are strong points of the crust, and stand usu- 
ally in bold relief on the under surface of the foot. 
The bars . — The fl e bars 39 (the echstreben of the Germans) 
are merely the inflections of the Avail, commencing at the 
summit of the angles, passing along the inner face of the 
Avings of the pedal bone on one side, and the inner margin of 
the extremity of the sole on the other ; they are inclined ob- 
liquely from the centre tOAvards the periphery or outer margin 
of the foot. Converging tOAvards each other by their extre- 
mities, they extend for about two thirds the length of the 
inner border of the sole, but never meet each other ;* so that 
the irregular circle formed by the Avail is not continuous, the 
re-entering angle formed by its extremities being left incom- 
plete. The inner oblique face of each bar is furnished Avith 
a series of laminae, gradually decreasing in size until they 
disappear altogether before the termination of the bar is 
reached. These laminae correspond to others on the inner 
face of the os pedis. The lower part of this surface of the 
bar is in contact Avith the sole, and is so closely adherent to 
it that the tAvo appear as one. The external face of the bar 
is that seen when the sole of the foot is scrutinised. By its 
upper border it forms a junction Avith the corresponding 
margin of the branches of the frog, and from this results an 
* Leyh, in bis c Anatomy of the Domestic Animals,’ states that the bars 
are prolonged forwards between the sole and frog, and finally, unite. This 
is evidently an error; they extend but little, if at all, beyond the termina- 
tion of the laminae, on the inner border of the wings of the os pedis. 
