246 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
which it has to act its part, but even in the same region do 
we find dissimilar forms which are each calculated to meet 
certain requirements. No doubt domesticity, and the arti- 
ficial and often injurious treatment this part obtains at the 
hands of man, causes a wide divergence from the original 
shape, but Nature herself does not always supply us with 
models of perfection. We see this frequently in the case of 
young horses whose hoofs have not been shod, and which 
nevertheles.s, in consequence of unequal wear, require to be 
“ trimmed,” in order to keep them from more or less distor- 
tion. And Signor Pellegrini, Professor in the Veterinary 
School at Milan, has observed that the unshod horses em- 
ployed in Italy in agricultural or other labour always wore 
their hoofs more at the outside than the inside, so that the 
peasants were obliged, from time to time, to remedy this very 
visible defect by having the inner side cut down, as when it 
had grown too long the foot became so twisted that the 
animal travelled with pain and difficulty. And the same 
observer states that in Lombardy, in the province of Bergamo, 
there is a breed of horses whose hocks are so much turned-in 
that while yet very young it is necessary to pare their hoofs 
frequently, and sometimes even to shoe them, in order to 
obviate serious deformity and mischief to the feet. Sollysel,* 
more than two hundred years ago, observed that the horses 
of the German peasantry were not shod ; though he remarked 
that it would be much to their advantage if they were, as the 
limbs and feet were in nearly every case he saw more or less 
deformed. And M. Bernard + quite recently confirms this 
observation of the old hippiatrist, by stating that in Lorraine, 
Alsace, and Bavaria, he saw many agricultural horses unshod, 
and that deformities of the hoofs were common. 
Nevertheless, if we are to look for a favorable type, we 
must seek for it among horses that have not been shod, which 
have always lived in perfect liberty, have well-shaped limbs 
and healthy hoofs, and place the latter upon the ground in a 
proper manner. 
If, then, we take such a type, we shall find that it 
is moderately large, and in just proportion to the size of 
the animal’s body. Its antero-posterior diameter is parallel 
to the axis of the body, while the digital axis (found 
by drawing a line through the centre of the pastern and 
pedal bones), if the angle of the front of the hoof be 55 °, 
is inclined about 63°. The wall being conical and not cylin- 
drical, it follows that it must be more sloping than this axis. 
* * Le Parfait Marechal,’ Paris, 1664. 
f ‘Journal de Med. Yet. Militaire/ vol. iv, p. 111. 
