THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER. 101 



as to permit the border of the sensitive sole to suffer from 

 the hig'h temperature. These accidents appear, however, 

 to have been infrequent, as we read of very few cases of this 

 kind. 



The idea prevails to some extent, that hot fitting" is hurt- 

 ful, and it was to g'uard ag-ainst this that the ^'pedometer ^' 

 was invented. This instrument was devised for the purpose 

 of taking" the dimensions of the foot. It was ingenious, 

 but deficient, as it took the exact size, but not the shape of 

 the foot. The size of the foot was then entered in a register, 

 and sent to the forge, Avhere the shoes were forged accord- 

 ing- to the measure of the foot after it had been pared down. 

 Now, it seems as though anyone could drive the shoe on, 

 Avhen the horse was in the stable or on the highway'; cer- 

 tainly such shoes could not fit as though the impression 

 had been made by a heated shoe. The trouble is that when 

 the hoof is pared down and the cold shoe placed thereon, 

 more or less cavities will remain between the hoof and shoe, 

 so that the hoof does not rest equallv on the shoe. Bv hot 

 fitting, of course, a perfect fit can be secured. "When the 

 shoe is applied hot, the action of the heat on the hoof has a 

 tendency to soften the hoof, so that when the nail is driven 

 in, it can be driven more easily and accurately ; and as the 

 hoof cools, it contracts about the nails and holds them firmly 

 in their places, as shown by the following : 



'' At the Cavalry School of Saumui% in an experiment cov- 

 ering an interval of over three years, from September 22, 

 1841, to October 5, 1811, all the near-sided horses of the 

 school were shod by the cold, and the off-sided ones by the 

 hot method. In that space of time, - out of 22,579 horses 

 that were fitted in the cold state, 386 shoes were lost, de. 

 tached or broken, and onlv 123 out of the same number were 

 lost, that were fitted while hot. That is, in the first case one 

 shoe in 58 was detached, while in the second case one shoe 



