AKT OF SHOEING. 539 



bone assumes the deformity which has been attributed to it 

 as its natural condition. 



" In the perfectly natural foot, the retrossa are relieved, or 

 raised a little above the general bearing surface of the bone, 

 by which they have a secondary pressure. ... If we place 

 the perfectly natural coffin bone upon a level flat board, or 

 table, it will be observed to bear primarily on the quarter, 

 and the inside quarter will take a more decided bearing than 

 the outer. . . . The pince, or front of the bone, will also be 

 found to take hardly any sensible bearing, being slightly 

 turned up, and away from the table, obviously in order that 

 it might more conveniently make the rotation which the 

 foot performs on leaving the ground." (BKACY CLAKK, pages 

 136-7.) 



The foregoing is a faithful description of a coffin bone far 

 advanced in deformity, amounting to disease ; such as may 

 be found every day, where old horses are destroyed; the bone 

 which was selected was capable of being turned to good 

 account, only as a pathological specimen. 



It is less surprising to find an enthusiastic inquirer, in 

 i809, drawing wrong inferences from first impressions, on 

 seeing a solitary phenomenon, than that his rivals and critics 

 should not, from their number, when excited to move, have 

 discovered his errors ; but, instead, some attacked the good, 

 and the less correct results of Clark's labours alike, others 

 believed all that he imagined, but none took the right 

 course, that of separating from the philosopher's produce, 

 the grain from the chaff. 



On the false assumption that the form and functions of 

 the coffin bone are such as has been referred to, indefinite 

 hypotheses have arisen as to how the foot should be shod, 

 and shoes of curious forms have been applied in accordance 

 with the views entertained by the authors, amongst whom 



