44 HORSES AND ROADS. 



and vans are to be continually met with in the 

 City. 



M. La Fosse was deeply impressed with the idea 

 that less iron was required ; and he boldly cut off 

 one-half of the shoe that is to say he maintained 

 that a tip on the front half of the foot was all that 

 was necessary. But, unfortunately, he spoilt a very 

 bright idea in two ways he recommended the 

 heels of weak-footed horses to be pared (and this, 

 of course, made them weaker), while he fastened on 

 a tip, of about six inches in its entire length of 

 iron, with eight nails. Horse-nails run from about 

 one-eighth up to three-sixteenths of an inch in 

 thickness. So he was inserting wedges amounting, 

 in the aggregate, from one to one and a half inches 

 in thickness, in six inches of horn, thus squeezing 

 it into the space of five, or even four inches, 

 and killing it from the clenches downwards and 

 outwards. 



Mr. Douglas says : ' If the crust is closely ex- 

 amined with a microscope, its structure will be 

 found to consist of a number of bristle-like fibres 

 standing on end, but bearing diagonally towards the 

 ground. From the particular longitudinal construc- 

 tion of the fibres, it follows that they will bear a 

 great amount of weight so long as they are kept in 

 their natural state. The crust so viewed resembles 

 a number of small tubes, bound together by a 

 hardened, glue-like substance. Whoever has seen 

 a mitrailleuse gun, with its numerous barrels all 

 soldered together, can form a very good idea of the 



