ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HORSE^S FOOT. 77 5 
cicatrix, and, consequently, that the horn grown therefrom 
is fibrous and tubular. On a foot from which he had removed 
one of the quarters of the hoof and the corresponding portion 
of the cushion as high as the periople, he found that the new 
growth which constituted the false quarter showed tubes like 
those in the other parts of the wall formed by the uninjured 
cushion, though these tubular fibres had a more irregular 
direction than in the normal hoof, and were more unequal 
in diameter. 
I must confess that my experience does not corroborate 
this statement of the able Professor of the Toulouse Veteri- 
nary School, for I have invariably observed that when any 
portion of the cushion is seriously injured the villi are not 
restored on the cicatrix. The wound has a strong tendency 
to contract, and this contraction brings the two borders 
nearly together ; in this way the lesion is repaired without 
much adventitious tissue being introduced into the chasm 
between the divided edges of the cushion, and the non-villous 
space is consequently generally somewhat limited. Besides, 
it is almost, if not quite, impossible, in an operation like that 
mentioned by M. Gourdon, to dissect away completely that 
portion of the cushion which alone secretes the wall, with all 
its villi, and leave the perioplic ring intact. In all probability 
these vascular tufts were not totally excised, and to this 
circumstance, and also to the contraction of the wound, was 
due the tubular horn subsequently formed. 
But that the hoof can be regenerated, or at least a mass of 
epidermic material produced which corresponds to it, and to 
a degree fulfils its office, without the concurrence of the 
keratogenous membrane, there appears to be ample proof. 
The new generative apparatus may be the hones, tendons, or 
other textures of the foot, and the vicarious function assumed 
by these would seem to be all the more active in proportion as 
the injury done to the special secretory membrane is extensive 
and serious. 
A striking example of this reproductive and reparative 
faculty devolved upon tissues to which it is habitually foreign 
is quoted by M. Gourdon from the f Recueil de Medecine 
Veterinaire’ for 1842, and shows to what an extent nature 
endeavours to compensate for the loss of important parts. 
A horse, aged five years, was admitted to the Veterinary 
School of Alfort, affected with diseased lateral cartilages of 
one foot, which was deemed incurable. Amputation being 
determined upon, the entire organ was removed by making 
a deep incision around its upper circumference, through the 
coronary cushion, at the origin of the vascular laminae. 
