Notices respecting New Bodks. '219 



In an " Essay on the feet of horses that have suffered 

 by shoeing, with experiments exhibiting the effects of a 

 sudden removal of the shoes and turning to grass," we 

 ■ find some very curious osteological and physiological re- 

 marks, which almost make us doubt the accuracy of our 

 anatomical knowledge of the horse. We allude to what 

 the author calls a '^putiloba or scaly node of the coffin- 

 hone," which consists of plates, or scales, forming an ob- 

 lono- lobe of some extent at the hind part of ihe foot, and 

 placed over one another like tiles, but not in contact, » 

 having spaces between them. This peculiar bone, it seems, 

 is entirely destroyed by tight shoes. The numbness occa- 

 sioned by the pressure of the nails also makes horses cut 

 in travelling. The conclusion which Mr. C. draws from 

 his experiments, is, " that after the foot has been exposed a 

 certain time to the operation of the iron, it becomes so 

 much changed from its natural state, that it is safer and 

 more advisable for it to remain in the diminished and fixed 

 condition to which it is reduced, than by any measures, 

 especially severe or coercive ones, to attempt its restoration ; 

 as any sudden or violent change appears to disturb the foot 

 and bring on morbid affections, rather than the healthy 

 condition of the part ; so that a continuance of it in this 

 state appears the less evil, or even an advance of the mis- 

 chief, if it be a very slow and uniform one, is to be pre- 

 ferred. Such appear the disclosure and unfolding of this 

 mysterious matter, and which, though it mav appear sim- 

 ple when explained, has been no small stumbling-block to 

 many people both in and out of the profession. The ex- 

 posure of strong feet a few days or weeks at grass, merely 

 to cool them or remove any casual compression from nails, 

 is not prohibited by this caution, but further exposure 

 would be injurious. The author has the pleasure of find- 

 ing his discovery immediately reduced to practice, and se- 

 veral noblemen and gentlemen now bring up their young 

 horses in their parks and pastures without having recourse 

 to the early and unnatural application of iron shoes. Even 

 the young horses for the regiments of Guards are kept in 

 this slate of nature, in consequence of which their lives 

 will in all human probability be doubled. 



The " Essay on the knowledge of the ancients respecting 

 shoeing" is more iulcrcsiiug to the lover of polite litera- 

 ture, and more entertaining to those wlio can amuse them- 

 selves with the natural history of language and the arts. 

 The epithet *• brazen-footed," ;)^«A)to7ro8sj, used by Homer, 

 he bhows, does not mean that Neptune's horses were shod 



with 



