EXPANSION OF THE HORSE’S FOOT. 321 
there was a very sensible bulging out of the elastic matter at that 
part. 
Observation .—The laminae are, 1 consider, nearly, if not al¬ 
together, inelastic in their longitudinal direction; but our talented 
writer, Mr. Percivall, has demonstrated, so long ago as 1832, in his 
“Anatomy of the Horse,” page 441, that the periosteal covering 
of the coffin-bone, to which the laminae are attached, possesses 
great elasticity, and therefore that the coffin-bone lies everywhere 
embedded in springs, whereby all concussion is removed ; and I 
expect that, in the shod state, it is principally by this beautiful 
organization that the jar is prevented. It becomes a question for 
future research, whether the movement of the laminae does not de¬ 
pend altogether on this beautiful elastic covering of the coffin-bone, 
and whether there may not be some peculiar arrangement of the 
fibres of this structure, to allow of free movement transversely, but 
scarcely any longitudinally. If (as all these previous experiments 
tell us), when a horse is shod up to the heels there is no expansion 
at the quarters of the foot at its lower circumference; if the sole 
does not descend ; and if the crust of the hoof does not declinate, 
how is it that the coffin-bone, which is so porous a structure, is not 
shivered to atoms by concussion ?—and yet how rarely does this 
occur! Nature has been munificent in her protection. This 
beautiful elastic covering of the coffin-bone, the regular expansion 
of the elastic tissue around the coronet, the swelling out of the 
highly elastic materials at the heels, and the expansion of the 
lateral cartilages, and the elasticity of the horny frog when the 
foot sinks into the ground, added to which, in the unshod state, 
the slightest declination or yielding of the whole hoof downwards 
and backwards in the direction of its fibres, and the bulbous cushion 
of the frog, highly elastic, as also the admirable symmetry of the 
joints, their angular formation, and the manner in which the weight 
is thrown on various parts, not forgetting the beautiful adaptation 
of the ligaments and tendinous structures, those prime removers of 
concussion, the suspensory ligaments — these are some of those 
beautiful contrivances which may well excite our wonder and ad¬ 
miration. 
19 th Experiment, 
On the fore foot of a cart-horse, which was moderately concave, 
and cut off at the small pastern. 
The sole was first removed, and a section of the foot made through 
the frog, and a shoe, well sprung at the heels, was now applied to 
the half of the foot, which was then put into the vice, the shoe and 
the coronet-bone being the opposing surfaces. 
Result .—The anterior part of the frog descended, as in the first 
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