310 
REPLY TO MR. C. CLARK ON THE 
it, I much doubt whether it would be able to stand on those pin¬ 
nacles of a slippery mountain, which the power of expansion in 
its hoof enables it to embrace. A horse may be said to have a 
foot half cloven , that is to say , a foot having the power of ex- 
pansion at the clefts of the heel , but confined at the toe .” Here, 
then, I believe it next to impossible for any one to describe the 
real action of the horse’s foot in a clearer manner than this, or 
sum it up in much fewer words; but I will just contrast our 
claim-all hero’s opinion with it, in order to let your readers see 
his folly in contradicting himself, and then proceed to see how far 
his description agrees with that which Mr. B. Clark has pro¬ 
mulgated, and which he also professes to advocate. 
• From the Lancet , No. 283, January 31, 1829, “ They are not 
aw are, or they do not know, it appears, that the foot being fairly 
cleft beyond its centre to within an inch and a half of the toe, 
leaving a triangular space which is occupied by the yielding 
elastic frog, opens from the front as from a hinge ; and that as to 
the expansion of the foot so much spoken of, it can never take 
place unless the toe, nay, the whole foot, is at liberty. Elasti¬ 
city is therefore, in some respects, a bad w ord, since it is not 
wholly soft materials, but a cleft-divided foot, which must ex¬ 
pand by halves, like the cow’s foot, as it w ere, or not at all. It 
might just as w ell and as truly be maintained that the hoof of a 
cow, or any other cloven-footed animal, does not open at all at 
the toe, because the joint is situated behind, at the heel; or that a 
door opens not at the latch, but only at the hinges.” 
The intimate connexion of these descriptions is so very ob¬ 
vious, and must appear so clear to your readers, as to render even 
a single comment at present superfluous; I shall therefore reserve 
what I have to advance on this point, and the cause that led to 
its appearance, for a future opportunity ; but just remark, that as 
your correspondent once called in the name of Milton, as he 
thought at the time to help him on a bit, though it proved a 
fault, I will therefore now trv if I cannot turn him to some ad- 
vantage, by quoting a line or two a little to my point:—- 
“ So spake the false dissembler, unperceived: 
For neither man nor angel can discern 
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks 
Invisible, through heav’n and earth.” 
Mr. B. Clark has laid it down, that the horse’s hoof is formed 
on the principle of a bow, that the frog is like India rubber, and 
that it is the passive bow-string of the bow 7 of the hoof; and on 
the strength of it has quartered an escutcheon with a bow and 
arrow 7 , and adopted Constantine’s the Great, and the mighty 
Knight Templar’s of old motto, In hoc signo vinces. Now I am 
