THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XLIII. 
No. 507. 
MARCH, 1870. 
Fourth Series. 
No. 183. 
Communications and Cases. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANATOMY AND PHY- 
SIOLOGY OF THE HORSE'S FOOT. 
By George Fleming, M.R.C.V.S., Royal Engineers. 
(' Continued from p. 14.) 
Anatomy of the Horse’s Foot . — To facilitate the description 
of the horse's foot, it has been very properly divided into two 
orders of parts : the internal, vital, or organized structures, 
and the external, insensible, or horny portions. Though 
mutually dependent one upon the other during the life of 
the animal, these parts can only be satisfactorily examined 
when separated after death. 
The internal structures consist of bones, cartilages, liga- 
ments, and tendons, with a vascular and nervous apparatus, 
as well as a special provision for secreting the external parts. 
The external are composed of horny matter, being in fact the 
hoof, divided, as it is naturally and descriptively, into “ crust" 
or “ wall," “ sole," “ frog," and a particular appendage of 
the latter termed the “ periople " or “ coronary frog-band," 
which encircles the upper part of the hoof. 
It is a matter for serious consideration which division of 
parts should first be described, it appearing, perhaps, most 
natural that an examination of the foot ought to commence 
with the external, and proceed afterwards to the internal 
structures, while the anatomist would consider this at vari- 
ance with the method established by his science, and would 
begin with the internal structures — the bones and other 
textures which form the basis of the organ — leaving the 
XLIII. 13 
