A series of original experiments on the foot of the living horse, exhibiting the changes produced by shoeing, and the causes of the apparent mystery of this art / By Bracy Clark.

  • Clark, Bracy, 1771-1860.
Date:
1809
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A series of original experiments on the foot of the living horse, exhibiting the changes produced by shoeing, and the causes of the apparent mystery of this art / By Bracy Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    131/173 (page 116)
    occasion for these perfections of the foot, if to the body was denied the powers for using them : the superior fulness of make in the horse imparts his graceful movements and attitudes, so also the foot is made in conformity by a more elaborate structure to contribute to these effects. By this enlargement of the sides of the bone, an unusual in- crease or extension of surface is obtained for the adherence of the re- ticulum, and at a part of the foot where the hoof, dilating under the weight, particularly demands yielding .combined with strength; and the bone itself, by being thus formed into thin plates, is also made in a degree elastic; and the reticulum, being sunk in the interstices of the plates and in the cells, finds a secure lodgment from the danger of rupture or derangement. The base or under part of this bone is considerably concave and somewhat polished, wuth slight asperities or breaks in its surface, for the adherence of the sensitive sole, which appears to be retained how- ever in its place more effectually by the deeper cells dispersed on the sides and heels: small serratures or denticulations of bone surround the very exterior edge, and hold more firmly in their place the membranes enveloping this bone. At its posterior part the coffin-bone presents a semilunar figure, and is on the underside, and beneath the articulating surfaces, pro- vided with a broad, very deep, angular excavation or cavity; to the superior part of which the ligament which retains the shuttle-bone to the joint is affixed ; and dilating more extensively dowmwards, this cavity next receives the spreading termination of the perforans tendon or back sinew; the more superficial margin or border of it serves an- teriorly for the strong adherence of the ligament in which the point of the internal frog terminates; the remaining edges of the cavity serve for the more firm attachment of the sensitive sole. The above very important termination of the back sinew is by its lodgment in this re- cess removed from casual injuries and from contusion on the foot meet- ign