,220 Notices respecting New Books, 



with brass, no more than Isaiah's hoofs like flint, were of 

 that stone. The s^^oltoli and xapoocrtvat of Xcnophon were 

 covers for the legs and feet of both soldiers and horses, 

 made of skins or leather. According to Aristotle, the 

 camel was subject to tender feet on going long journeys, 

 when it was shod with the karbatinai. It appears that the 

 earliest veterinary surgeons were those employed by Con- 

 stantine to attend the horses of the Roman armies. Ap- 

 syrtus, whose work on this subject is still extant, lived at" 

 that time. When iron shoes were introduced, about the 

 fifth century, the smiths became the horse-doctors, and 

 were called ferrers ; afterwards J'erriers, and corruptly 

 farriers, from ferrum, iron. Instead of leallier socks, 

 some think the ancients used broom twigs ; but it appears 

 better ascertained that they sometimes put iron over the 

 leather. It is more probable that the broom was applied 

 rather medicinally, than to protect the feet as shoes. Even 

 the Spanish broom {spartium junceum Linn.) would be 

 very inadequate; the barilla-matting of the i^zpa tendcissiTmt 

 Linn, would be much better, and also the leaves of the 

 dwarf palm, ckamcerops humilis Linn. The origin of mo- 

 dern shoeing can be traced no higher than the nailed shoe 

 found in the coffin of King Childeric, who died in 481 ; 

 but a more unequivocal intimation of the modern horse- 

 shoe occurred in the ninth century under Leo X. of Con- 

 stantinople. Daniel says that horses were shod only in 

 frost or particular occasions in that age. Wdliam the 

 Conqueror introduced the practice of shoeing into England ; 

 he gave Northampton to Simon St. Liz, a Norman, to pro- 

 vide shoes for his horses ; and Henry de Ferrers, the an- 

 cestorofLord Ferrers, was the superintendantof the shoers. * 

 From these extracts, the reader may learn that Mr. Clark 

 has introduced more original and curious information than 

 could naturally be expected on the uninviting subject, the 

 feet of horses. Whether these Essays be considered as the 

 work of a man of science, learning, or philanthropy, they 

 do equal honour to his head and heart, and are highly wor- 

 thy the serious altentioVi of all men who have ever been 

 conveyed from place to place by a horse. 



Thomas Myers, A.M. of the Royal Military Academy, 

 Woolwich, author of a Compendious System of Modern 

 Geooraphv, historical, physical, political, and descriptive, 

 intends soon to publish, elegantly printed on a large sheet, 

 a statistical Table of Europe, uniting all that is most in- 

 terestins in the geoerapby of thai distinguished quarter of 



the 



