472 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



one method be likely to supersede the rest, the victory will probably 

 be for the asphalt ; but horses are found to slip seriously upon it, and 

 the falls so caused are, we are told, of a graver kind than those on 

 pavements of other sorts. All the proprietors of cabs, omnibuses, and 

 rail way- vans have, it is said, protested in a body against its use, but 

 scarcely, it would seem, to good purjiose. Fresh contracts have been 

 signed for pavements of asphalt, and others will probably follow. In 

 the mean while horses have to pass, perhaps in a single morning, from 

 macadamized roads to roads paved with asphalt, wood, or stone in 

 other words, over roads made of widely differing materials, which call 

 in each case for a different action of the foot. On the other hand, the 

 hoof is supposed to be protected by shoes, the varieties of which are 

 legion ; and thus the controversy has been brought to a singular issue. 

 On one side it is urged that there should be a uniform system of pav- 

 ing enforced on all towns, so that horses should no longer pass from a 

 less slippery road to one that is more slippery ; on the other the con- 

 tention is that the true remedy lies not in uniformity of paving, but 

 in the discovery of a shoe which shall effectually prevent the horse 

 from slipping anywhere. The former alternative is visionary ; the 

 latter has been, and perhaps it may be said still is, the object aimed at 

 by some who have a thorough acquaintance with the structure of the 

 horse, and the most disinterested wash to promote his welfare. We 

 may therefore safely pay no heed to the lamentations of those who 

 believe that " the difficulty in riding or driving through the London 

 streets arises from the variety of the pavements in use," and that, " if 

 we had a uniform kind of pavement, a shoe for universal use would 

 be quickly invented." We may please ourselves Avith fancying that 

 " the ingenuity of man would devise horseshoes to travel over glass, 

 were glass the only pavement in use." The main question is, whether 

 mankind after all has not been forestalled in this invention ; and it is 

 absolutely certain that those who have labored most conscientiously to 

 improve the shoeing of horses have striven especially to secure for 

 them the power of moving safely over materials of many kinds. These 

 men have been convinced that the traditional methods overload the 

 foot of the horse wnth iron, and that the modes of fastening on this 

 iron interfere with, if not altogether obstruct, the processes of nature. 

 The efforts of all have been directed toward diminishing the w^eight of 

 iron, and this has led them to the conclusion that the less the natural 

 foot is interfered with the better. M. la Fosse thus inferred that one 

 half of the ordinary shoe was unnecessary, and that nothing more was 

 needed than a tip on the front half of the foot. Unfortunately, he 

 directed that the heel should be pared, thus making it weaker, and he 

 fastened on his tip, which had about six inches of iron in its entire 

 length, with eight nails. He was thus "inserting w^edges, amounting 

 in the aggregate to from one to one and a half inch in thickness, in six 

 inches of horn, thus squeezing it into the space of five or even four 



