442 
EXPANSION OF THE FOOT. 
were not so varied or numerous as those of Mr. Gloag’s, but proved 
equally conclusive as to the results. They forced a conviction on 
me, through long and close observation, that our very best and 
soundest hoofs were. those in which, from the quantity of horn, ex- 
pansion seemed almost impossible. I commenced practice with no 
preconceived ideas likely to bias my opinion in any one direction; 
on the contrary, I had come from the College deeply impressed 
with, and entirely believing in, Mr. Coleman’s views on the subject. 
And here, Mr. Editor, I must differ with you, and some of your 
correspondents, when you say, speaking of this subject, that in 
future “nothing is likely to pass current save the result of actual 
experiment*.” On the contrary, there is no part of the animal 
economy in which experiments are more likely to prove fallacious 
than those made on the foot of the horse ; owing to the different 
states or conditions of this organ in different animals, and in the 
same animal at different times; and we need no further proof of 
this than the difference of the conclusions arrived at by Messrs. 
Gloag and Reeve in their very able and ingenious experiments on 
the subject. If we possessed no more knowledge in physiology 
than can be demonstrated, very limited indeed would be our 
knowledge ; and I think the functions of the foot a subject as 
likely to be illustrated by comparison and analogy as any other 
disputed point in physiology. When we reflect on the uniformity 
and simplicity displayed by Nature all through the creation ; when 
we see how simple and few are the great outlines of animal life — 
that from man downwards, through all the vertebrata, the spine 
with its contained cord, and brain, constitute the basis of all 
nervous systems, as a heart is of all circulatory apparatus ; that 
the organs of progression are formed with consummate skill on the 
same general plan ; that the same kind of termination to the ex- 
tremities is found in all species of the same genus ; and that those 
in which concussion is provided against by expansion have a 
structure expressly contrived for the purpose, and so contrived as 
to explain at once its use ; and when we consider the peculiar 
conformation of the hoof of the family solipedes , we can hardly 
conceive why they should prove an exception, or why, if it was 
necessary for them to expand, a structure so different from those 
animals in which expansion does occur, should have been contrived. 
The family solipedes, of which the equine is the only genus, and 
of which the species are but six, present us with a form of termi- 
nation of the extremity unlike any thing else in the animal king- 
* Mr. C. has not quite caught our meaning here. We intended the 
words — “ that nothing is likely to pass current, &c.” to apply to any replies 
that might be made to the facts elicited by Messrs. Gloag and Reeve, which 
were not grounded, as they were, on actual experiment. — Ed. Vet. 
