ANATOMY OF THE HOUSE. 
315 
of the commissures. Looking into the interior of the hoof, we 
discover that the commissures, internally, are converted into 
rounded promontories, similar in appearance and texture to the 
one in the middle—the frog-stay—on the sides of which they are 
rising. In the natural state, the commissures must unavoidably 
get plugged with dirt, or whatever the animal may happen to 
tread upon; a circumstance from which some far-fetched notions 
have been extracted concerning their use. 
THE TOE, or Point of the Frog, is the anterior, undi¬ 
vided, elongated portion ; that which forms the apex of the 
pyramid or wedge—the acute or extended angle of the triangle : 
the only part displaying that prominent or rounded form that 
would warrant us in using the epithet “ conical” to the frog. It 
possesses solidity of substance, firmness of texture, and lux¬ 
uriance of growth in an eminent degree—a fact well known to 
the farrier, who, in paring the foot, seldom fails to make more 
free with this than any other part of the frog. 
THE HEELS or bulbs of the frog are the posterior protube¬ 
rant parts embraced by the heels of the wall, and separated from 
each other by the cleft, forming, together, the base of the wedge 
or triangle. They present greater depth of substance than the 
toe, but are of a softer, more spongy texture, and are less resist¬ 
ing and stable in consequence of being deprived of mutual sup¬ 
port by the division of the cleft. Anteriorly, the heels unite with 
the lateral prominences bounding the cleft; inferiorly, they 
present two surfaces of tread to the ground, evidently designed 
to take a share in the bearing of the foot; posteriorly and supe¬ 
riorly they exhibit a bulbous fulness, in consequence of receiving 
at this part a supplementary covering from a production which 
has been (in the description of the wall) adverted to, under the 
appellation given it by Mr. Clark, of 
Coronary Frog-bancl .—It was there stated, that the coronary 
groove (the groove or canal in the coronary border of the cutis) 
broadened considerably as it descended to and turned round upon 
the heels; in like manner does the horny band produced by 
it broaden, and not only grow broader but thicker in substance, 
and consequently in the same degree augments the substance of 
the heels, occasioning that swell of them which has suggested the 
appellation of “ bulb.” The horny band itself is every where 
lamellated upon its internal surface; but these broadened parts 
of it display lamellae of a much bolder character, and conse¬ 
quently render their union with the heels so much the more 
intimate and enduring. The inferior edge of the band is denti¬ 
culated, and the denticulations become so interlaced with the 
lamellated fibres of the wall, that their union is rendered, in the 
