CONTRACTED FEET. Were it not for fear of being accused of a very serious omission, we do not think we should give place, among the diseases, to the subject of the present paragraph; it is certainly not of itself a disease, unless we can consider a tight (human) shoe as one. For the hoof itself is just as insensible as a piece of leather, and no more than the said leather can become the scat or subject of diseased or any other organic action; it would therefore be the height of absurdity to regard con tracted hoofs in this light. It has been said. that a hoof, when it has become contracted, is operating the same as a tight shoe, compressing and squeez ing the parts within it: but this mechanical notion does not seem to accord with practice. We rather suspect that the contraction (of the hoof) will be found to be rather an effect than a cause of inflam mation: not that we mean to assert, that it always results from inflammation; only, when we find the two existing together in a foot previously healthy, we would place the latter first in the account. The
ordinary cause of contraction appears to be the state of inaction into which the posterior or com pressible parts of the foot are thrown in conse quence, principally, of want of pressure to the frog: these parts, from having become comparatively useless, naturally shrink, and then the hoof closes in upon them. Every hour's observation shows the truth of this view of the subject; and we learn every day, from practice, that pressure to the frog has considerable effect in dilating the heels, though it may fail, in consequence of the change of structure in the compressed, or rather shrunk parts, in re storing the hoof to its original dimensions.