ON THE FOOT 125 



to bed at night in the behef that he has a horse in his 

 stable worth five hundred guineas, and when he gets 

 up in the morning finds him not worth as many shiUings. 



What I have to say on this subject is the result of 

 experience, never having seen a proper dissection and 

 injection of the foot of a horse ; and perhaps it is well 

 for me that I have not — for I remember hearing my 

 Lord Maynard declare that he had never had a happy 

 moment since he had witnessed that operation ; " for 

 now," said his Lordship, " I expect my horses to be 

 ruined every time they step over the sill of their stable 

 door." From the numerous horses, however, that I 

 have seen cut up in the boiling house, added to the 

 great attention I have paid to the subject, I have, I 

 think, a pretty correct idea of the form and construc- 

 tion of the horse's foot, and the causes of the diseases 

 that attack it — I wish I could add that I were able to 

 point out the cure. 



It is, perhaps, presumptuous to say what may 

 have been the intentions of the Creator. Might we 

 be allowed to question whether it were intended 

 that the foot of a horse should be shod with iron, 

 and that the horse should be driven or ridden on hard 

 roads. From the adaptation of the parts my humble 

 faculty supposes both ; and yet we must express our 

 surprise why so many ages should have passed over 

 before such ends should have been effected. From 

 what I have heard and read on the subject, there is 

 no proof of shoeing horses, as we shoe them, being 

 practised until the ninth century of the Christian era ; 

 and we must admit that he was a bold man who first 



