12 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HORSe’s FOOT. 
and, knowing what farriery generally is, and the evils that 
attend its unscientific practice, it is scarcely too much to 
say that ninety per cent, of these foot lamenesses are due, 
directly or indirectly, to ignorance of the rules which ought 
to govern that art. 
The study of the foot is then a matter of the greatest mo- 
ment whether it be with reference to its preservation in 
health, or restoration to efficiency when in a diseased con- 
dition. To this end, an intimate acquaintance with its 
normal structure and fuctions is, above all things, requisite ; 
and right well this acquisition repays the diligent student of 
nature in the glorious revelations of adaptation and design 
it affords throughout its entirety; for it is in the horse's 
foot, if anywhere in the animal body, that those beautiful 
and marvellous means for accomplishing certain definite 
purposes and devices to meet various contingencies are best 
displayed. Amid its wonders, and in the intricacy of its 
complicated mechanism, we behold everything — the arrange- 
ment, construction, and mutual relationship of bones, 
tendons, ligaments, vessels, nerves, and external protection 
or hoof — 
Ordered by an intelligence so wise, 
As might confound the Atheist’s sophistries. 
The rugged, repulsive-looking hoof, which, to the unin- 
formed, is nothing more than an uncouth carapace of horn, 
conceals a world of marvels ; for the student will quickly dis- 
cover that the apparent simplicity of disposition of its com- 
ponent parts, and the fact of its being a solid foot, does not 
render it the less complex or difficult to examine, nor di- 
minish, but rather enhances, the beauty and wisdom evinced 
in its architecture. 
Few organs have been more carefully scrutinised and de- 
scribed, even within this century, and none, perhaps, have 
yielded fewer satisfactory results, so far as the horse is con- 
cerned. With a few rare exceptions, the study of the 
horse's foot has given rise to and perpetuated the most ex- 
travagant theories, which, when applied to the management 
of the organ, in health or disease, have been, and are now, 
productive of very serious injury. And yet this study, 
guided by reason and common sense, should bring us to the 
conclusion that the foot does not require to be endowed with 
any accessory and wonderful properties beyond those already 
conferred upon it ; that it is constructed on a plan in harmony 
with other parts of the body ; and that the due maintenance 
of its structures in their natural condition, and the full de- 
velopment and integrity of its functions are, above all other 
