THE HOKSE’s FOOT. 
351 
up iu Maine becomes spavined or deformed in his limbs, he would, 
if brought up in Kentucky. Neither can I perceive why a herd 
of horses, male and female, ringboned, spavined and otherwise 
affected with diseases peculiar to their limbs, if turned loose in a 
country suitable for their continual existence, should not produce 
offspring that would in time be entirely free from such diseases. 
Before we can properly guard against undesirable changes 
that domestication brings about, those to which each type of 
hoof is most liable require to be carefully studied and classi¬ 
fied ; for example, the large round hoof from some parts of the 
West was adapted to the locality from which it came, and the 
only kind possible of production in such a district when not in¬ 
terfered with. Yet its low sole and frog, large enough to take 
up one-third the area of the sole, although a delight to all ad¬ 
mirers of large frogs, is ill-suited to our hard streets, from its being 
too wide. It is, therefore, of great importance that we know how 
to guide this living structure in the mature animals as well as in 
the young, so as best to acclimatize it gradually and fit it for its 
new requirements, instead of in a hap-hazard sort of way trusting 
to old nature to make unaided the desired changes. 
Whether the heels expand or contract when the weight is 
thrown on them has often been discussed, and pages have been 
written on the subject. That the short wide hoof spreads at 
the heels there can be no doubt, and it is not disproved by the 
fact that in toe crack and quarter crack, the edges come together 
when the foot is placed on the ground; still there is a class of 
hoofs with heels wider at the hair and narrow below, that may 
come together, or at least resist the expansion. 
It may be said in opposition to this view, that the hoof deter¬ 
mines the character of the diseases peculiar to the limb ; that it 
is the limb that exerts the adverse influence on the hoof. That 
there is some reciprocity between them may be admitted, but, if 
we take as an example, a leg that has been accidentally cut or 
bruised severely in some important part, causing the foot to be 
held suspended for a long time, the hoofs will change in the direc¬ 
tion to which its form predisposes it, and when the injury has 
got well, if the hoof has become imperfect, it will react on the 
