ESSAY ON SHOEING HOIiSES. 131 



parts usually serve as a protection to new formations bencatli, and 

 should not be removed until the latter are perfected. 



I am aware that the frog looks better when pared, but a healthy 

 condition of the parts docs not consist altogether in good looks, and 

 tlie same reasoning also applies to the body of the animal ; there are 

 many fine looking horses in this city, yet many of them, in conse- 

 quence of hereditary predisposition and insidious disease, may be 

 next to death's door. We get a very handsome looking hoof and 

 frog, by means of knife, butteris and rasp, but I defy any man to 

 preserve their integrity and keep them healthy by such instruments. 



There was a time when the practice of cutting away the frog was 

 recommended by surgeons themselves, so that the smiths who now, 

 in good faith, practice it, are not always blameable. One author, 

 whose work I have perused, endeavors to smooth the matter over as 

 follows : " The frog offers so little resistance to the knife, and pre- 

 sents such an even surface, so clean and nice, and cuts so easy, that 

 it requires more philosophy than many smiths possess to resist the 

 temptation to slice it away, despite a knowledge, in some instances, 

 that it would be far wiser to let the frog alone." 



One of the most distinguished cavalry surgeons to the British 

 army says, that he never allows a knife or butteris to touch the frog, 

 for the simple reason that a long experience has shown conclusively 

 that the frog possesses, under certain circumstances, less reproduc- 

 tive powers than some other parts of the hoof, and the individual 

 alluded to has had horses in his possession for more than five years, 

 whose frogs never scraped acquaintance with a knife or anything of 

 the sort. 



The reader may desire to know how the frog is to disencumber 

 itself of its ragged and apparently superfluous surfaces; if so, I 

 answer that nature has provided a means, which is a process of cast- 

 ing off or sloughing, and When this does occur, a new growth is seen 

 beneath it, a smaller frog is visible, yet it is an entire one, and soon 

 acquires magnitude in ratio with its connections. 



Among some persons an idea prevails that a hoof should be circu- 

 lar. This is a great mistake, for on examination of a colt's foot we 

 find that the segment of a circle is more apparent on the outside of 

 the hoof; on the inside, from the toe to the heel, we have less curve. 



This appears to be a Avise arrangement, as there is less liability to 

 strike the inner angle of the hoof against the opposite limb ; there- 

 fore I infer that any attempts by means of knife and rasp to make 

 the inner margin of the hoof describe the segment of a circle, is 

 contrary to the intention of nature, and injurious to the feet. 



REMARKS ON THE APPLICATION OP HOT SHOES. 



Hot shoes, as they are often applied, tend to carbonize the sole 

 and crust, increase the temperature of the foot or feet, and thus, for 

 the time being, induce functional derangement of the plantar system ; 

 and if the horse be the subject of an inflammatory diathesis, or at 

 all predisposed to disease of the feet, of an acute character, the hot 

 shoe may possibly — and it often does — operate as an exciting cause 

 to develop a latent aftection. 



In view of giving the non-professional reader some idea of the 

 anatomy of the parts, that he may exercise his own judgment in the 



