536 ART OF SHOEING. 



meantime we will endeavour to advance on our course by 

 new methods of analysis, and exposition of views. 



It is found to "be true, however paradoxical to the mind, 

 that the art of horse-shoeing, and the prevention and cure of 

 foot diseases, are subjects so allied that no attempt to separate 

 them has effectually done so, because, from the nature of the 

 subjects, the whole must be taken under cognisance together. 

 Physiology and pathology, or the science of healthy action, 

 and a knowledge of diseased states, necessitate one unbroken 

 train of inquiry. Foot disease and lameness, which destroys 

 a larger proportion of horses than any disease to which the 

 animal is subject, besides impairing the working powers ol 

 the larger proportion of those which are kept in work, must 

 be investigated along with prevailing customs of shoeing, 

 when it will be found that the one stands related to the other 

 as cause and effect, and the sequence of these will be accord- 

 ing to that of the agencies ; for instance false modes of shoe- 

 ing, which, interfering with functions, produce disease; whilst 

 rational application of art may be made the means of restor- 

 ing functions, when an all-bountiful nature begins to restore 

 the mischief done ; hence shoeing is a common cause of tem- 

 porary pain, and it causes permanent derangement of the foot 

 if the system be not duly amended ; whilst the art scientifi- 

 cally applied is capable of conserving horses' feet in their 

 normal state, with some occasional and accidental exceptions, 

 and when good execution is made to follow bad practice, 

 shoeing becomes the restorative means; thus it is a surgical 

 appliance, in the case. 



The difficulty experienced in trying to instruct non-pro- 

 fessional readers by reference to anatomical details, is perhaps 

 irfbre imaginary than real, though anatomy and physiology 

 cannot be thoroughly gone into locally, and those who advance 

 the knowledge of an organ, or a region, do so usually by con- 



