534 AET OF SHOEING. 



fibrous bands above, whilst anteriorly the tendinous struc- 

 tures taper, become condensed, and send off attaching bands 

 laterally to the semilunar crest, and a still more considerable 

 one on each side in connection with a slip of the expanded 

 perforans tendon, which are strongly inserted together, into 

 the inner surface of the basilar process, and the pedal car- 

 tilage. 



Persuaded that no mechanic whose understanding is limited 

 to the handicraft work alone, will ever succeed well in the 

 practice of shoeing horses, and yet, believing from the extent 

 and varied kinds of knowledge required, that few will be able 

 to master more than a special part, and knowing that, probably 

 for years to come, not one horse-shoer in fifty will have the 

 opportunity to learn anything about the foot, (not through 

 want of capacity on the part of farriers to learn, but for 

 reasons, and through the operation of causes not easily 

 defined, but still more difficult to remove), it is through thus 

 seeing facts the more our aim to adopt phrases and modes 

 of exposition such as will be generally intelligible, and still 

 anticipating that which Bracy Clark prognosticated fifty 

 years ago, te when the art has made some advance, improve- 

 ments will go on faster," the aim now must be to adapt pre- 

 sent means of diffusing knowledge on the most urgently re- 

 quired details. 



When, however, the most has been done that can be 

 accomplished, to make the veterinary student proficient in 

 the practice of shoeing, and the working farrier intelligent 

 on the structure and functions of the foot, the number of 

 men who may be expected to reach proficiency in the whole, 

 will not be great, the few nevertheless, will be like the 

 little leaven that leavens the whole lump, and in this 

 respect veterinary science and art is not exceptional : the law 

 prevails in all human knowledge. It is very desirable, also. 



