On the General Treatment of the Feet. 179 



And this kind of Founder is from its nature incurable, as it is not 

 in the power of art, to restore to their original elasticity, parts 

 which have become converted into bone. 



Moreover, Mr. Clark has shewn us what (I believe) was not so 

 much as suspected before his profound investigation of this interest- 

 ing- and intricate subject was made public, that the coffin bone itself 

 undergoes a very material alteration in its structure, in consequence 

 of the imprisonment which the living parts within the hoof suffer, 

 from the permanent pressure of the nails. 



If the coffin bone, therefore, can be proved to undergo a sensible 

 dimunition in its size, and alteration in its structure, from this source 

 alone, we ought to be the less surprized at the change which takes 

 place in the condition of the soft elastic parts within the hoof, from 

 the operation of the same cause. Having already insisted upon the 

 great advantages which arise from preserving the hoofs in a cool ex-r 

 pansive slate, it may naturally be expected that 1 should give directi- 

 ons about paring and preparing the feet^ when a long run at grass 

 is determined upon, either for the express purpose of restoring the feet, 

 or of benefitting the general constitution of the animal. And here, 

 unfortunately, I feel myself under the necessity of disappointing 

 in a great degree, the expectation of the reader, by candidly admit' 

 ing that our sanguine hopes of advantage, from the practice of tura- 

 ing out Horses, without shoes, or with tips only on their feet, both 

 in cases of violent contraction, and of lesser derangements of the 

 feet, have been most grieviously disappointed. For, experience^ 

 which, after all, can alone decide the truth or falsehood of our spo- 

 culative opinions, has long since convinced me that no decisive, 

 permanent advantage is to be obtained from this practice, m ^ny 



