192 
COMMENTS ON MR. LUPTON^S PAPER. 
conversely, the results of concussion in horses of unequal 
parts form a catalogue of evils incident to horse-flesh. Your 
correspondent cites for example man during progression 
putting his heel to the ground first, which is hardly a fair 
analogy, as the foot of man includes the os ca/cis as well as 
the digital extremities. Though “ heel and toe*’ is fair walk- 
ing, yet in rapid progression the heels of the swiftest runners 
do not touch the ground ever so lightly. To do so would be 
to check the speed, or to halt. 
The ox's foot is bifid or cloven, and is no less objectionable 
as a comparison than the paw or foot of the dog. During 
the progression of the horse, be the pace slow or fast, in 
draught, or stepping unrestrained, I am of opinion that the 
toe is the first to come to the ground. Progression, permit 
me to remind your correspondent, is accomplished by its 
main engines, the hind extremities; which accomplish it by 
means of the great muscles of the pelvis effecting a succession 
of lateral advances towards the central line of gravity — the 
fore limbs acting more as aids and supports. The act of paw- 
ing expressive of impatience or pain, is an act of rapid flexion 
and extension, in which the toe is the only part of the foot 
brought to the ground. The heavily laden draught-horse 
toiling up hill with his load grasps, as it were, the ground with 
his toes, and as he strains every ounce of his weight forward, 
he maintains his place in the collar. See him also in going 
down hill backing in the breechings and checking the too 
rapid descent of his load ; even here he plants his toes, fore 
and hind, first on the ground. Mark the fast trotter as he 
skims with airy tread the road beneath the toes scarcely 
touching it. Note again the fleet racer in the most trying 
moments of his excited, and it maj T be almost exhausted 
speed, and tell me does he even then put his heels to the 
ground first? I think not, nor in any circumstances, save 
and except in disease, as when affected with laminitis, or 
subsequently, will a horse thus tread. Here the tread is 
markedly upon the heels, and this is a progression certainly 
almost retrograde. 
The action popularly known as “daisy cutting” is a good 
example of a horse who skims the ground very closely, plant- 
ing the toes first upon it. Navicularthritis is also, in my 
opinion, a good illustration of the toes coming first to the 
ground ; not as concerns the action of horses affected by it 
“ digging” their toes into the ground, but in the orthodox 
opinion of the cause of the ulceration of the articular surfaces 
implicated, being results of leverage power exerted to an 
excessive and disease-inducing degree. 
