HOOF, a toe-nail which is large, envelops the terminal phalange, and is of material as sistance in walking, as in the case of horses, cattle and other ruminants, and in the elephant, rhinoceros, etc. It is most highly developed in the horse, where the whole terminal part of the foot is reduced to a single, well-booted toe. In split-hoofed or cloven-hoofed animals there are two toes approximately equal, and booted with hoofs flat on their inner sides and closely appressed. The small non-functional toes hanging behind the hock-joint in most split-hoofed animals are often cabled hoofs? Accidents and diseases affect the,hoofs of domestic animals (see FOOT-ROT, etc.), and require careful attention, especially in the case of horses. The soundness of a horse's foot is mainly preserved by permitting it to grow un injured by the rasp and knife, and kept clean by being washed with cold water; all other ap plications are injurious and destroy the tough ness of the shorn surface? Softness and brit tleness of the hoof, which are fruitful sources of cracks and corns, may be remedied by plac ing the feet for several hours daily in thick woolen swabs, kept cool and moist by frequent applications of cold water, and by encouraging a more healthy growth of horn by occasional mild blisters round the coronary band. Cracks
(or sand-cracks) mostly occur among horses much upon the road, cause lameness and con stitute unsoundness. When serious and recent, poulticing,' thinning away of the crust about the crack and perfect rest are essential. After the earlier heat and tenderness are removed a hot iron should be drawn at right angles to the crack, both above and below, so as to separate the diseased from • the sound horn. Waxed thread or fine wire should be wound round the hoof, and a sound growth of horn stimulated by a blister round the coronet.