ROMAN HORSES SHOD WITH ' LUNETTES ' OR ' TIPS.' 45 



peculiar structure of the crust (or wall), especially 

 if they were likewise to imagine the tubes to be 

 filled with a thick fluid, the use of which is to 

 nourish and preserve them.' 



If La Fosse had made a research of this kind, 

 he would have perceived that, by his way of nailing, 

 he was reducing the size of each tube by one-sixth ; 

 or, what is more probable, that he was entirely 

 closing those nearest the nails, and compressing 

 those that He half way between each pair of nails. 

 How, then, could the 'thick fluid which is to 

 nourish and preserve them' circulate when it arrived 

 at the nails ? And what, therefore, was to nourish 

 the prismatic-shaped portion that lies in front of 

 the nails? In and around Rome, at the present day, 

 horses are shod with his * lunette ' or tip, and many 

 of them on the front feet only (the hind feet being 

 entirely unshod) ; but they are generally fastened 

 on with only three, or sometimes four, nails; and 

 these are the only horses that can keep on their 

 legs in the slippery streets of the city. For the 

 benefit of strangers, that come on horseback from a 

 distance, there are posted up notices, at the various 

 points where paving commences, warning them to 

 dismount at such points in case their horses should 

 be fully shod. Those Englishmen who take any 

 notice at all of the Roman horses' feet, mostly 

 ridicule the ' barbarous ' way in which they are shod, 

 and boast of the ' splendid English shoeing.' Some 

 even consider it cruelty, and feel so strongly on the 

 subject, that they refuse to hire the vehicles to which 



