\7^ On the General Treatment of the Feet 



point relative to shoeing", no longer doubtfiil, and thus to have cleared 

 away one difficulty which lay in the patli of improvement^ for his co- 

 temporaries, is certainly in my humble opinion to have rendered, an 

 invaluable piece of service to the Veterinary art. Whilst Mr. Clark's 

 industrious researches however, must necessarily abate the san}[^uine 

 expectations which we were formerly in the habit of indulging, as to 

 our ability to give permament relief in cases of contraction of the 

 Feet, Ihey do at the same time, most forcibly direct our attention, to 

 the employment of the means of preventing this disease, as far as the 

 power of our art can go. For, my own part, I profess myself so 

 perfectly satisfied with Mr. Clark's inductions, from the facts which 

 he has stated, that I consider his arguments, in the main, to be un- 

 answerable. Nevertheless, I cannot help being of opinion, that this 

 ingenious Veterinarian, has either overlooked, or unintentionally 

 underrated some of the means of preventing or rather procrastinating 

 this contraction, so inseparable from the present system of shoeing. 



Living in the heart of a great metropolis, and witnessing every 

 day, the unfeeling manner in which Horses are employed, in an un- 

 ceasing round of labour, and constant battering of their Feet upon 

 the hard pavement, (which, to use his own expression, occasions 

 very rapid usings-up) he is, I think, scarcely aware of the infinite 

 number of cases, of Horses that are employed in agriculture, and 

 even of many Saddle Horses, which are kept in small country towns, 

 where they have frequently the advantage of being turned into fields 

 or paddocks, whose Feet are, in consequence of this mode of treat- 

 ment, preserved to a great age, without any violent contraction^, or 

 permament lameness accruing. 



