EXPERIMENTS ON THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
317 
infliction of great violence to the bones of the cranium, and the 
membranes investing the sensorium. With reference, again, to 
Case IV, I freely confess I am abroad in every way upon it. I 
offer no explanation as to the mode of its production ; for, viewed 
in whatever aspect the reader may choose, difficulties and ano¬ 
malies present themselves. I am unable to find any record of such 
a condition of the spleen having ever being observed previously in 
either the human or brute species. I have carefully read over 
the article on “ Diseases of the Spleen” in the “ Cyclopaedia of 
Practical Medicine,” but am unable to find any allusion to such a 
state as the one in question. The author (Dr. Bigsby) enumerates 
several anormal states of this organ, such as inflammation, acute 
and chronic—hypertrophy—atrophy—suppuration—softening—in¬ 
duration—ossification—hemorrhage—rupture—hydatids—melano¬ 
sis—calculous deposits, and, in short, many others, but not absorp¬ 
tion of its entire substance, and the deposition of fibrinous clots in its 
place. I therefore present it to the profession as a pathological 
curiosity of its kind. 
Erratum. —In p. 181, line 21 from the bottom, for “fifteen hands two inches and a 
half high,” read, fifteen hands three inches and a half high. 
EXPERIMENTS ON THE EXPANSION OF THE 
HORSE’S FOOT. 
By J. W. Gloag, V.S. 1 \th Hussars. 
[Continued from p. 257.] 
All the preceding experiments were performed with a view of 
ascertaining the amount of action of the foot under ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances of shoeing; but if we consider the state of the foot of 
an unshod horse, it is in every way different. In a state of nature, 
the horse very seldom treads upon a perfectly flat surface ; or if he 
does, it may be a yielding surface, and a very different action may 
go on in the foot to that when the horse is shod. From long ob¬ 
servation I was fully aware that, under varied conditions of the 
foot, a different action was produced in it, and with the view of 
demonstrating this action, I continued these experiments. 
14 th Experiment. 
Upon the fore foot of a cart-horse, which was moderately concave, 
and cut off at the coronet, a slit was made with a very fine saw 
down the hoof on the inside quarter, in the direction of the laminae, 
through the crust. A flat plate of iron was then applied to the 
