162 SHOEING. 



enthusiastic obedience. These Gentlemen 

 ha,ve in succession, after going over (as before 

 observed) a great deal of unnecessary ground, 

 totally unintelligible to the sporfmg world, 

 endeavoured to convince us, iheit paring the 

 sole or frog is not only unnecessary, but ab- 

 soluteiy prejudicial ; for, say they, to esta- 

 blish a credulous confirmation of their erro- 

 neous conjecture, if you pare away the sole 

 or frog in any degree ; the more you pare, 

 the farther you take from the ground the 

 support of the tendon, which so entirely de- 

 pends upon the elasticity of the frog." If 

 any one person living could be found so unex- 

 pectedly ignorant as^ to pare the fooi partially 

 (that is, all behind and none before), such 

 effect might probably ensue ; but surely no 

 rational observer will attempt to deny or dis- 

 prove a palpable demonstration, that all parts 

 of the foot being equally pared, (that is, the 

 HOOF, SOLE, and frog,) the centre of sup- 

 port and action must be still the same. 



But was it really as they have said ; if 

 w^hat they have so learnedly advanced was 

 literally and justly true, what do they im- 

 mediately do after thi^ judicious and dicta- 



