164 OBSERVATIONS ON INJURIES, ETC., AMONG ARMY HORSES. 
nary convexity from which the horny fibres are secreted had 
received very little damage, while the other secreting surfaces 
were also only slightly injured. The sensitive laminae were all 
somewhat frayed, but had separated from the insensitive with 
an evenness that was surprising ; the toe and under surface of 
the heels, in small pieces, were the only soft tissues left in the 
hoof. About 20 yards were traversed before the horses could 
be halted. After the hoof was torn off, the limber, and, per- 
haps, the gun wheel passed over it, flattening and breaking 
it. The accident occurred in a few seconds.* We found the 
poor animal holding up the injured limb, trembling and 
bleeding somewhat freely. A committee decided that the 
horse should be destroyed, acting in the interests of govern- 
ment, and advising on the score of humanity, under our re- 
commendation. This would have been an interesting case to 
treat, to ascertain in what manner a further secretiou of horn 
would be disposed. So far as we have been able to judge of 
the growth of the hoof, we are of opinion that if this animal 
could have been placed under favorable circumstances (we 
need not describe them here) the horny envelope would have 
been reproduced, but would not have displayed the same 
integrity as the lost one. Nor would it have rendered the 
animal serviceable in the capacity of an artillery trooper. 
We do not pause to ask for information on the reproduction 
of the hoof. The only other case we remember was about 12 
years ago. A railway truck had torn away the hoof of a horse 
employed in moving luggage waggons about the line. We 
did not see the animal, but we know he was destroyed. 
Severe sprains to the muscles of the loins and thighs, and 
also to the tarsal joints, are of occasional occurrence. Were 
it possible to search out the causes of these cases, with any 
prospect of arriving at the truth, heel-ropes, in six instances 
out of ten, would, in our opinion, bear the blame ; but the 
native groom of India will as religiously evade the truth on 
these points as the native groom of any other country. On 
this account veterinary surgeons in this country have often 
to treat effects, some of them very obscure too, that never 
have any causes? We are too often debarred the assistance 
that the history of cases affords ; there is no necessity, how- 
ever, to commit ourselves by hazarding an opinion, though a 
question, through inadvertency, may be asked. 
There is under treatment at the present time a horse 
suffering from what we have chosen to call “ partial para- 
* The sketch of the hoof which reached us with the MS. was too roughly 
drawn to admit of its being used for a woodcut. — [E ds.] 
