654: OPERATIONS ON THE FOOT. 



and the important result is secured of reducing the weight of the 

 shoe without the necessity of too frequent renewals, experience 

 having jDroved that for the fore-feet it is quite as durable as the 

 ordinary shoe of twice its weight, but which from the manner in 

 which it is applied suffers, unaided, the effects of the pressure 

 and friction (H. Bouley). As in the action of paring the foot only 

 the projecting portions of the wall at the inferior border are re- 

 moved, the preserved parts of the plantar region resist the move- 

 ment of retraction, and thus prevent its occurrence in a transverse 

 direction. Again, as the thickness of the Charher shoe is greater 

 than its width, it possesses a certain elasticity and adapts itself to 

 the successive movements of the dilatation and contraction of the 

 horny box, however lunited they may be. 



We may now refer to some special modes of shoeing, recom- 

 mended as preventive of contracted heels, but which seem to us 

 to possess inferior advantage to the preceding. "We first find the 

 unilateral shoe of Turner, which, according to that veterinarian, 

 reheves the foot from pressure upon the heels by placing the nail 

 holes on the toe and the external branch only. Tui'ner recom- 

 mends also the conservation of the frog and that of the bars, and 

 it is probably to this that the success he has obtained by that 

 mode of shoeing is due. 



Coleman recommended a shoe very thick at the toe and thin 

 at the heels, the toe being three times as thick as the heels. This 

 veterinarian thought that by this shoe the animal was obliged to 

 rest on his frog ; at the same time the nails were driven in the 

 toe principally, so as to allow the dilatation of the heels. This 

 shoe has no real advantages, and predisposes to corns. 



The bar shoe is of some utility when the frog is well developed, 

 by placing on that part the pressure of the foot, and leaving the 

 heels free. But it often fails in contracted heels, because in aj)ply- 

 ing it these parts require to be pared down, in order to increase 

 the prominence of the frog, and a condition is thus produced 

 which does not exist in contracted feet. The same may be said of 

 the Charlier bar shoe. The objections stated and the reasons 

 suggested are true of all the various shoes designed to adjust the 

 frog pressure. 



The hinge-shoe or articulated (Figs. 501 and 502) of Bracy 

 Clark and Vatel, and the half-shoe of Sempastous, of Peillard, 

 also possess but a doubtful utility. Practice has not confirmed 



