THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 227 



him a no less lasting reputation. Fleming * says of him : " This 

 celebrated cavalry-officer appears to have carefully studied the char- 

 acter of the horse, and all the precepts which he gives in his treatise 

 on horsemanship are dictated by an amount of wisdom and hu- 

 manity which has not, perhaps, been excelled since his day. The 

 safety and comfort of that animal and its rider were ever before 

 him ; his teachings were principally directed to make the horse pe- 

 culiarly adapted to service in war. He displays great judgment 

 when specifying the proper form and disposition of the parts which 

 collectively make up the nearest approach to a perfect horse, and 

 markedly shows to what a high degree, in that distant age, this kind 

 of knowledge was cultivated ; indeed, from his writings we are led to 

 infer that in his time, and perhaps long before, there were accom- 

 plished horse-breakers and public riding-masters, as well as men who 

 were excellent judges of the qualities of the horse. In advising as 

 to the good ' points ' to be sought for in a horse, he employs the 

 clearest terms to express his meaning. ' A person,' he says, ' may 

 form his opinion of the feet by first examining the hoofs ; for thick 

 or strong hoofs are much more conducive to firmness than thin ones ; 

 and it must not escape his notice whether the hoofs are high or low, 

 as well before as behind ; for, in high hoofs, what is called the frog 

 is high above the ground, and low ones tread equally on the strong- 

 est and weakest parts of the hoof, like in-kneed men, or like crip- 

 ples among men, who limp on parts which were never intended by 

 nature to support them.' He says, further: 'As attention must 

 be paid to the horse's food and exercise, that his body may be vig- 

 orous, so must care be taken of his feet. Damp and smooth stable- 

 floors injure even naturally good hoofs, and to prevent them from 

 being damp they ought to be sloping ; to prevent them from being 

 smooth they should have irregular-shaped stones inserted in the 

 ground, close to one another, similar to a horse's hoof in size ; for 

 such floors give firmness to the feet of horses that stand upon them. 

 . . . The ground outside the stable may be put into excellent con- 

 dition, and serve to strengthen the horse's feet, if a person throws 

 down in it four or five measures of round stones, each large enough 

 to fill the two hands, and each about a pound (?) in weight ; they 

 should be surrounded with an iron rim, so that they may not be 

 scattered ; for, as the horse stands upon them, he will be in much 

 the same condition as if he were to travel part of every day upon a 

 stony road. The feet of horses that have been hardened by ex- 

 ercise will be superior on rough ground to those which are not 

 * " Horseshoes and Horseshoeing," p. 21. 



