ATROPHY OF THE PLANTAR CUSHION. 
459 
2d. The hind feet? were then taken as examples. It was said 
that the proof of the influence of the dessication of the hoof in 
hoof-bound, was that in the hind feet, which, instead of being like 
the front ones, standing on a dry bedding, remain upon a con¬ 
stantly damp litter, this disease was seldom seen. To this we will 
answer that if the front feet are more commonly affected, it is due 
to a special predisposing condition of the former which is inherent 
to their physiological functions. And, besides, we all know that 
the concavity of the hind feet is “ often filled up with manure 
more or less diluted,” so that the frog again is allowed to come 
at rest, and the plantar surface is placed in its normal condition. 
The particular condition of dampness of the hind feet, how¬ 
ever, does not exempt them from becoming hoof-bound. I 
know a horse Which had an acute arthritis of the left hock, and 
three weeks after the onset of the disease the corresponding foot 
was very much hoof-bound. The stallion Bashi-Bazou, of the 
national stud farms, is so much hoof-bound behind that these 
feet have often been affected with quarter-cracks. M. Lafosse, 
in his Veterinary Pathology , mentions a case of hoof-bound for¬ 
ward and behind. 
' Where is the veterinarian, having several years of practice, 
who has not observed a fact analagous to the following: A horse 
is very lame on one front leg ; he is put loose in a box-stall with 
a good bedding; the corresponding foot is placed in the same 
condition of dampness as the congener—we might add, as the 
hind feet, and still, after a month or six weeks from the appear¬ 
ance of the lameness, this foot has become hoof-bound, sometimes 
to such an extent that the internal heel overlaps the external. We 
must then acknowledge that the hygrometric condition of the horn 
has nothing to do with this diseased process, and that this de¬ 
formity is due to a want of pressure at rest in the lame leg. 
3d. The following facts were also taken up : When a hoof is 
exposed to the sun after it has been separated of all its contents 
by maceration, it becomes by dessication narrower in its trans¬ 
versal diameter; and if so contracted it is placed in water, it re¬ 
sumes by degrees its normal size. Here again, an illusion, or 
rather a wrong interpretation. We do not deny the changes 
