ON THE FOOT 129 



part efectually, by forming the foot of good materials, 

 all the art of Mr Coleman and the whole body of 

 veterinary science is of no avail ; and, lastly, when 

 disease has once thoroughly taken possession of this 

 delicately formed organ, the boiler is the only remedy. 

 With respect to my first assertion, it would be as 

 preposterous to say, that because a man may have 

 a neat leg and foot, or an elegantly turned hand, he 

 were never to be attacked with gout or rheumatism in 

 either of them, as to suppose, that because a horse 

 may have a perfectly formed foot he is never to be 

 subject to disease. Much as I am an advocate for 

 good shoeing, it would be equally preposterous to 

 assert, that unless a horse be shod agreeably to one 

 or two particular systems he is to become a cripple. 

 When we consider how many various methods of 

 shoeing are practised in different countries, we must 

 be well aware that they cannot all be agreeable to 

 nature ; therefore we must conclude that shoeing 

 is not the chief consideration, as, in spite of its very 

 worst application, some horses continue sound in 

 their feet for a great number of years, whilst others, 

 shod by the first practitioners of the art, are irre- 

 coverably lame before they have worn out a dozen 

 sets of their orthodox shoes. When, however, we 

 consider the delicacy and intricacy of the structure, 

 with all its various articulations, we cannot wonder 

 at its not being perfectly comprehended at first sight. 

 As under the roof of our parents we imbibe our first 

 notion of things, it may be allowable to go back to such 

 data. In my father's stable, although — from his 

 I 



