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.

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    ravages and pain. These we have cured by enlarging the incision through the frog ; and believe, in desperate cases, the insertion of a seton quite through the heels, on the side or anterior to the frog-stay, is not impracticable, though it should not be resorted to till the an- tiphlogistic regimen and cooling topical measures have failed of the effect of curing, which are often alone sufficient. If the natural coffin-bone of the horse’s foot be placed on a level flat surface, as a board or table, it will be observed to bear chiefly on the sides or quarters, and the inner heel and quarter will have a more flat and decided bearing than the opposite one, which is disposed more to project exteriorly, and the toe or front of the bone will hardly take any bearing; the reasons of which we have attempted to give formerly in describing the hoof. In regard to the exact situation or place of this bone in the hoof, it may be proper to remark, it is removed to a greater distance from the or ligament in passing posteriorly become more numerous and this structure at the frog-stay becomes doubled (existing on each side of it); and as these ligaments ap- proach the base of the frog, they become more thin and flaccid, and are finally lost in these elastic parts of the heels by forming concentric layers of tendon with others coming from the extremities of the heels, and thus afford the rounded bulbs of the bi- furcations of the frog. The above singular apparatus of constrated layers of ligament appear admirably de- signed and provided to break the force of violent pressure against the more tender parts above described; and this they appear to do by each layer in succession receiving the force of the stroke and conveying it with diminished impetus to the next above, till it is finally lost or rendered incapable of doing injury. Towards the point of the frog these horizontal ligaments attach to a middle septum of tendon placed upright in the centre of it: and it appears necessary just to state that the capsule containing this apparatus is not, strictly speaking, in contact with the horn of the frog, since the membrane se- creting the horn must ever be in that situation ; and this cornfacienl agent, on all oc- casions, is perhaps a continuation of and peculiar organization of the cuticle. We have observed also that a greater freedom of motion appears in the elastic organization of the heels, for a longitudinal rather than a lateral distention, determining the dilatation or extension, principally towards the base of the frog. opening