SPECIFIC AXD REMEDIAL SHOEING. 227 



CHAPTER IX. 

 SPECIFIC AND REMEDIAL SHOEING. 



ITS PURPOSE AND SCOPE DELINEATED. 



The special purposes of shoeing will be considered under 

 this head as applying to " all sorts and conditions " of feet — 

 especially defective and diseased conditions — for which certain 

 merits are claimed for many diiierent styles of shoes, in remedy- 

 ing or curing the special defects against which they are directed. 

 No one need be told that in operating upon feet of this kind, 

 the highest discretion of the farrier is called upon, for it is not 

 the application of a given style of shoe to the foot in a given 

 way, but it is the scientific adaptation of a special kind of shoe, 

 varied for special purposes, to suit different conditions of the 

 foot, with a view of securing certain beneficial results. Thus 

 regarded, this section of my subject becomes withal one of the 

 most interesting phases of all the branches of shoeing. 



There are a large number of artificers who make horseshoe- 

 ing a profession, who ofler convincing testimony of having 

 mastered the principles of their art (as proved by their skill 

 in this department of it), that I should doubtless have made an 

 exception in their favor in my strictures on the careless bun- 

 glers who belittle the importance of the profession and unmake 

 the well-deserved reputations of the more finished artists in the 

 business. 



