THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XLV. 
No. 529. 
JANUARY, 1872 . 
Fourth Series. 
No. 205. 
Communications and Cases. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANATOMY AND 
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
By George Fleming, M.R.C.V.S., Royal Engineers. 
Physiology of the Horse’s Foot. 
(Continued from vol. xliv, p. 882.) 
/ 
The observation of the facts referred to in the last paper 
has given rise to the axiom “ That the secretory action of the 
coronary cushion may he diminished, and even entirely sus¬ 
pended, by a degree of pressure that acts as an obstacle to the 
excretion of the newly formed horn.” In other words, an 
undue amount of pressure on any part of this cushion hinders 
the circulation of the blood in the secretory apparatus, and 
this, as a matter of course, brings about a proportionately 
diminished secretion. 
And the inverse proposition, “ That in diminishing the 
resistance opposed to the formation of new horny material, we 
favour and render more active the special function of the 
keratogenous apparatus,” appears to be as correctly founded. 
As a proof of this, the effects following particular surgical 
operations have been adduced. For example, if a portion of 
the wall be removed from any point of the circumference of 
the hoof at the coronet, the new horn thrown out on the sur¬ 
face of the denuded cushion will in the course of a month 
have acquired such a thickness, in consequence of the 
suractivity of the generating membrane, that it constitutes a 
XLV. 1 
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