THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XLIII. 
No. 510. 
JUNE, 1870. 
Fourth ISeries. 
No. 1S6. 
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. ,365.) 
The Internal Elastic Structures of the Foot . — The very 
nature of the horse requires that he should possess, not 
only a strong resisting foot, which, to be so, must be a 
solid or undivided one, but that, in order to harmonise this 
solidity with the inherent swiftness and power of this animal, 
it should also be endowed with a special apparatus of great 
elasticity, in addition to those appliances already referred to, 
lodged within the hard horny box, to compensate for the 
rigidity of the other parts, and to render the organ more 
springy and resilient than that of any other animal, speak- 
ing comparatively with reference to size and position. A 
large portion of the foot, as we have seen, is composed of 
the dense resisting media by which the weight and strain is 
overcome ; the remainder is made up of the tensile struc- 
tures, judiciously disposed, which minister no less to speed 
and gracefulness of motion, than to the diminution of con- 
cussion and the protection of vital textures. 
This complementary arrangement, which is for the most 
part situated behind the organ, fills up the space left within 
the hoof by the bones, tendons, and ligaments just specified, 
and consists of plates of cartilage of varying thickness, very 
tough and supple, with fibrous pads or cushions, and mem- 
branes, isolated or combined, placed wherever they are 
likely to be required. These constituents of the apparatus 
xliii. 20 
