SECRETARY'S REPORT. 143 



to horse-slioeing as in France, and although the English workman 

 thinks little of some of their methods, (such, for instance, as one 

 man holding up the foot while another drives on the shoe,) still there 

 is no doubt but their form of foot and shoe is the best and nearest to 

 nature that has yet been proposed, and is fast coming into favor 

 amonof the more scientific of their British neiaihbors. 



The main point of inquiry among the French of late, is to find 

 the proper aplcmb, or tread-posture, (if I may put two expressions 

 into one,) of the foot; convinced that the nearer they approach to 

 nature in this, the more will they facilitate the easy working of the 

 other locomotive powers of the animal. If we take the cut, figure 

 18, as in any way making this approach to the proper form of shoe, 

 we will find it presenting a very marked contrast to the pointed, 

 peaked, and pivoted shape represented in figures 4, 5, 7, &c. 



In England, France, and on the continent of Europe generally, 

 wherever veterinary schools exist, and scientific attention is given to 

 shoeing, this natural form of foot is -more or less followed in the 

 shape of the shoe, (see figures 8, 13, 14, 17 and 18) and the animal 

 has preserved to him, along with the protection from wear which the 

 shoe gives, the position of tread for which nature has constructed 

 the other mechanical arrangements of his organs of motion. Why 

 it is not so here is partially perhaps due to the use of the buttris 

 for cleaning out the foot when it is shod, as it is almost impossible 

 with this antiquated instrument to bring the hoof to the proper 

 shape in all its parts ; but it is more so to want of study on the part 

 of those who shoe, of the structure of the foot, its uses, and the 

 relation existing between it and the other motive organs, the bones, 

 tendons, and ligaments of the limbs. 



Let me describe for an instant the way the horse was commonly 

 shod here a few years ago, and still sometimes is. The foot an inch 

 longer at least (often more) in hoof than it should be, and brought 

 out to a point instead of being rounded back. (Figure 1.) On this 

 point is placed in addition to the unnatural length of the shoe, a 

 round button like knob of steel, (figures 4, 5, 7, &c.) with perhaps 

 only a fourth part of an inch of level bearing to rest upon the 

 ground. When the ground is soft it is all well, as this projection 

 penetrates till the flat of the shoe comes to bear the weight ; and all 

 the extra labor the horse has is that of raising himself an inch ox 



