COMMENTS ON ME. LUPTON’s PAPER. 191 
of influence in the “ planting” of the fore foot to the ground, 
and which is, I believe, primarily upon the toe. A few of my 
reasons for entertaining an opinion adverse to that of your 
correspondent, I shall now state as briefly as possible. 
The wear of iron in uncalked shoes in the majority of 
cases is most evident at the toe and outer edge, rather than 
at the heels, which assuredly would not be the case if the 
heels, f£ even for an instant,” came primarily to the ground. 
It may be urged that the exertion of draught on the toe 
leaving the ground last causes this wear, and so it does in a 
degree, but not equal to the wear or attrition caused by 
implantation in (e action.” 
Viewed as a piece of animal mechanism, a horse’s leg, 
when its original movements are destroyed by anchylosis, 
cannot be properly compared to the spoke of a wheel which 
has no life or motion within itself, and which in its integrity 
is fixed to a centre, (the nave,) whose revolutions effect the 
progression of the w heel, the spokes of which, sans felloes, 
w r ould certainly under the circumstances plant their pos- 
terior edges primarily on the ground. But by no stretch 
of philosophy or imagination can I understand how an 
anchylosed limb could contribute to progression ; rather 
it would be trailed along by the progress of the other 
three. As little does an individual spoke contribute to 
the revolution of the wheel, in which it merely assists the 
extension of circumference whilst diminishing w r eight. Let 
us suppose a number of anchylosed fore legs united at their 
superior extremities to one common centre, and it strikes 
me very forcibly that the toes of the legs so placed w y ould 
come first in contact w r ith the ground during the revolution 
of so singular a wheel on account of the obliquity of the 
hoof, the toe being the extremity. With such a com- 
parison even before him, I cannot easily understand your 
correspondent entertaining the opinion that the heel was the 
first to come to the ground. The anatomical construction of 
the foot is evidently as beautifully formed to resist con- 
cussion, as it is possible to conceive any object to be adapted 
to its purpose. An assumed adaptation of the frog to receive 
the first effect of concussion does not by any means resolve 
the point; for I contend that the horn at the anterior part 
of the foot is as capable, if not more so, than the frog, of resist- 
ing as much concussion as it may be called upon to bear — 
considering that concussion is so instantly and thoroughly 
distributed through the mechanism of the horse’s frame — as 
to constitute it a point of difficulty to say where concussion - 
produces the greatest effect in a horse equal in all his parts ; 
