888 CENTRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
in cases of tetanus for instance, that after the use of powerful seda- 
tives, as belladonna and hydrocyanic acid in combination, not the 
least diminution occurred. In the use of salines his observations 
agreed with those mentioned by Pereira and others, who state no 
diminution takes place, although the sense of coldness induced is 
extreme. The value of the thermometer, as foretelling the progress 
or decline of disease long before any outward manifestation is ex- 
hibited, was dilated upon, and Mr. Armatage concluded by urging 
attention to Mr. Mavor’s observations, as well as to the use of the 
thermometer generally, as an instrument calculated to throw much 
light upon the nature and progress of disease, and means of much 
greater accuracy in diagnosis, not in ordinary diseases only, but 
those of an occult and contagious character. Many of the tabulated 
statements of previous observers were said to be totally inaccurate, 
and, as far as the lower animals are concerned, the veterinarian has 
an extensive field before him, and facts collected therefrom may 
prove eminently useful to the medical man in human practice. 
Mr. W. Hunting referred to the discrepancies that are known to 
exist in thermometers from the same maker, two instruments, 
although said to be correct, registering different degrees in the same 
animal. He could refer to observations made by individuals in that 
manner, and which proved delusive and fatal. It is necessary to 
receive with caution new theories, and the results of few and uncon- 
firmed experiments ; they tend to overthrow the facts and teachings 
of the past without providing the most proper and reliable substitute 
for them. 
The President then called upon Mr. W. Hunting to read his 
paper on “ The Growth and Structure of the Horse’s Foot,” in 
which the author endeavoured to show that although convenience 
requires a division of the hoof into three elements— wall, sole, and 
frog — anatomy and physiology distinctly indicate that it is a con- 
tinuous whole, and this totality applies as forcibly to the functions 
as to the structures of the hoof. 
After detailing with great minuteness the structural elements of 
the foot, Mr. Hunting went on to say that the hoof consists of horn 
fibres running parallel to each other, and of an agglutinating inter- 
fibrous horn. The papillae or villi, covering the sensitive foot, 
secrete the horn fibres ; and the surface between the villi secretes 
the interfibrous horn. The sensitive laminae not only afford attach- 
ment for the wall, but, like the sole, frog, &c., secrete horny matter. 
The whole sensitive foot is continuous, and must, therefore, produce 
a continuous hoof. Maceration in water enables us, with the aid of 
some force, to separate from each other the frog, sole, and wall, but 
not clearly ; we never can obtain a definite division throughout with- 
out the aid of a cutting instrument. Mr. Hunting holds that this 
partial separation merely shows where destructive forces are most 
powerful, that the line of division is weaker than other parts. It is 
weaker merely because there is at such parts a relative want of horn- 
fibres — an excess of the weaker kind of horn. 
The function of the hoof is to protect the sensitive foot, and to 
