TRAIXIXG AND KESPONSIBILITIES OF FARRIERS. XlYl 



ment, j)lan, and purpose should be, at least in part, known by the 

 farrier, and he is not fit for his work if he does not know some- 

 tliing of this. And if he will not voluntarily study and learn 

 this, he should be compelled to do so, or be forbidden to jAj his 

 pretended trade. A certain amount of professional training and 

 knowledge should be made necessary, and compulsory, by the 

 legislatures of every state in the Union ; nay, by every law-making 

 power of the world. Why should not schools for the training and 

 education of farriers be established, and a diploma, or the certifi- 

 cate of some competent examining board, as evidence'of a certain 

 amount of knowledge of the suljject, be required, before a farrier 

 should be allowed to practice on the living, innocent, helpless 

 animal? And why is this not as necessary to prevent the needless 

 destruction and damage to property, as to prevent cruelty to dumb 

 animals? How many horses are either temporarily injured, hope- 

 lessly ruined, or prematurely killed by the unskillfulness and 

 carelessness complained of! In my opinion, most of the horses 

 of this country do not live out half their days of usefulness on 

 this account. 



But there are already some considerations that it would be 

 well for all farriers, either pretended or real, to bear in mind. It 

 is a well-recognized princijile of law, that a person holding himself 

 out to the world as a person of sufficient skill to do certain things 

 is liable for all damages resulting from his want of such skill as 

 he has led those employing him to think he possesses. Thus, a 

 man holding himself out to the world as a surgeon would be liable 

 for all damages to a person who employs him, for instance, to set 

 a broken arm, if, from the want of reasonable skill as a surgeon, 

 he should so set the broken limb that it should thereafter be 

 crooked, or partly or wholly disabled, on account of such bad set- 

 ting. So a blacksmith, who claims to be a farrier, would be 

 liable to the owner of a horse which such smith should injure, 

 lame, or ruin, by reason of his want of skill as a farrier. 



There is another reason that should make an unskillful far- 



