sation to the fingers not unlike that imparted by a soft indiarubber,
and as easily sliced as cheese-rind.

Lastly, though the foot is extremely liable to suffer from the effects
of extreme dryness or excessive humidity, especially with regard to the
changes thus brought about in the nature of the horn, it is perforce
exposed at all times to the varying condition of the roads upon which it
must travel. The intense dryness of summer and the constant damp of winter,
each in their turn take part in the deteriorating influences at work upon
it.

Though this subject might be indefinitely prolonged, this brief resume of
the adverse circumstances to which the foot of the horse is exposed
is sufficient to point out the extreme importance of its study to the
veterinary surgeon. So long as the horse is used as a beast of burden so
long will this branch of veterinary surgery offer a wide and remunerative
field of labour.

CHAPTER II

REGIONAL ANATOMY

Considered from a zoological standpoint, the foot of the horse will include
all those parts from the knee and hock downwards. For the purposes of this
treatise, however, the word foot will be used in its more popular sense,
and will refer solely to those portions of the digit contained within
the hoof. When, in this chapter on regional anatomy, or elsewhere, the
descriptive matter or the illustrations exceed that limit, it will be with
the object of observing the relationship between the parts we are concerned
with and adjoining structures.

Taking the limit we have set, and enumerating the parts within the hoof
from within outwards, we find them as follows:

A. THE BONES.--The lower portion of the second phalanx or os coronae; the
third phalanx, os pedis, or coffin bone; and the navicular or shuttle bone.

B. THE LIGAMENTS.--The ligaments binding the articulation.

C. THE TENDONS.--The terminal portions of the extensor pedis and the flexor
perforans.

D. THE ARTERIES.

E. THE VEINS.

F. THE NERVES.

G. THE COMPLEMENTARY APPARATUS OF THE OS PEDIS.

H. THE KERATOGENOUS MEMBRANE.

I. THE HOOF.

A. THE BONES.

THE SECOND PHALANX, OS CORONAE, OR SMALL PASTERN BONE.--This belongs to
the class of small bones, in that it possesses no medullary canal. It is
situated obliquely in the digit, running from above downwards and from
behind to before, and articulating superiorly with the first phalanx or os
suffraginis, and inferiorly with the third phalanx and the na