116 HORSE AND MAN. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The calk, or calkin — Horses on pattens — Two strange accidents — Calks 

 in America — Supposed uses of the calk — Mr. Bowditch's testimony — 

 Weight thrown on the edge of the coffin bone — High-heeled boots 

 and their effects — The battle of the shoes — Recognition of defects in 

 shoeing — The Goodenough shoe and its object — Jointed shoes — The 

 Clark jointed shoe — The screw shoe — Expansion and contraction — 

 The effect of the screw on the hoof — Tips, and how to fasten them — 

 The Charlier, or ' pre-plantar ' shoe — How to apply it — Usually too 

 large and in danger of breaking and twisting — Best length and weight 

 for a Charlier shoe— Man versus Nature — A series of happy thoughts 

 — Their results upon each portion of the hoof. 



There is one portion of the shoe which must be 

 mentioned. It is the calk, or calkin — i.e. a projection 

 at the heel which looks very much like the high- 

 heeled boots which have destroyed the feet and 

 broken the health of many a fashionable beauty. 

 Sometimes, as in the Manchester shoe, which I men- 

 tioned on p. 113, the calkin extends across the back 

 of the shoe, connecting the ends together, and look- 

 ing very much as if the blade of an iron scraper 

 had been fastened across the heels. Generally, how- 

 ever, there are two calks, one on each side of 

 the heel ; and, too often, the blacksmith has not 



