310 
ANATOMY OF THE HORSE, 
appeared to afford an increase of actual surface more than the 
simple internal area of the hoof would give of about twelve times, 
or about 212 square inches, or nearly one square foot and 
a half. 
The lamellae exhibit no differences but in their dimensions. 
In length they correspond to the respective depths of the wall; 
being longest, and likewise broadest, around the toe, and gra¬ 
dually decreasing towards the hinder parts. 
In composition, they are horny. Viewed through a microscope, 
Mr. Clark discovered in their substance two planes of fibres, 
“ the one running in parallel lines to the axis of the hoof, the 
other obliquely intersecting these.” When stretched, they ex¬ 
hibit signs of elasticity; but this appears greater in the trans¬ 
verse than in the perpendicular direction. 
By means of its lamellae, the wall presents a superficies of ex¬ 
traordinary amplitude for the attachment of the coffin bone. A 
structure consisting of similarly formed lamellae envelops the 
bone, and these are dovetailed in such a manner with the horny 
lamellae, as to complete a union which for concentrated strength, 
combining elasticity, may vie with any piece of animal mecha¬ 
nism at present known to us. 
THE BARS are processes of the wall, inflected from its heels 
obliquely across the bottom of the foot. For a long time, by far¬ 
riers, they were confounded with the substance of the sole, an 
error that owed its origin and perpetuation to the malepractice 
they exercised in paring the foot— in cutting both bars and sole 
down, without any distinction, to a common level. In the na¬ 
tural healthy foot the bars appear, externally, as elongated 
sharpened prominences, extending from the bases of the heels 
into the centre of the foot, between the sole and the frog: pos¬ 
teriorly, they are continuous in substance with the wall, with 
which they form acute angles; anteriorly, they stretch as far 
as the point of the frog, constituting two inner walls or lateral 
fences between that body and the sole. Sainbel conceives, from 
their position, that they offer resistance to the contraction of the 
heels. Their internal surfaces exhibit rows of lamellae, continued 
from those lining the wall, but which are here short , and in their 
direction transverse, two circumstances owing to the narrowness 
and inflection of the bar: they gradually grow shorter, and less 
distinctly marked, until we at length lose all vestige of any more 
of them. While the prominence of the bars is such as to give 
them a secondary bearing upon the ground, their sharpened 
forms will sink them more or less deeply into every impressible 
surface. 
