THE JOINTED SHOE. 129 



the jointed shoe seemed as nearly perfect as anything 

 could be, and it earned considerable praise. But Mr. 

 Clark had overlooked three very important defects. 

 The first was, that the footsteps of the horse had 

 the same effect upon the rivet as so many blows of a 

 hammer, fixing it so tightly that the sides lost their play. 



The second defect was, that the iron of the toe 

 always wears away faster than at any other portion 

 of the shoe. Now, as the rivet was in the toe, the 

 natural result was, that it soon became so much 

 worn, that it fell out altogether, leaving the two 

 loose ends as levers by which the nails were loosened 

 at every step. 



The third defect lay in imperfect knowledge of 

 the structure of the hoof. The reader may re- 

 member that the lateral expansive property rests in 

 the quarters, and that the toe is practically non- 

 expansile. Therefore, as the shoe was nailed equally 

 round the hoof, the quarters could not expand when 

 fastened to the toe, and so there might just as well 

 have been no joint at all. 



In writing of this shoe, Lieut. Douglas, in the 

 gently sarcastic tone which pervades his book, re- 

 marks that if the nails were let into half-inch slots, 

 so as to have a quarter of an inch play in either 

 direction, ' the jointed shoe would have some chance ; 

 as it is, there is none for it whatever.' 



K 



