428 prjMiCE FOOT. 



description of foot is that which will, either of itself or through 

 additions made to it, enable us to give that amount of pressure 

 upon the sole which is found to be so requisite for the purposes 

 of support and uplifting of the descended coffin-bone, to the extent 

 possible, into some proximity to its original place. Whether 

 we really possess any such power as will effect this, may very 

 properly be made the subject of doubt ; but that we can, by 

 pressure and support to the sole, prevent any further descent of 

 it, should that appear likely to happen, is beyond a question. 

 A broad- web shoe — such a one as Plomley's of Maidstone* — is 

 a good one for this purpose ; and this should be plugged in- 

 ternally with stopping, intermingled with tow, the two together 

 forming a compressible pillow, upon which reposes with ease 

 and firmness the as yet tender sole of the foot. Over the 

 stopping and tow should be placed, and nailed on with the shoe, 

 a stiff piece of sole leather. Or, which some prefer, after the 

 shoe is nailed on, a piece of gutta percha, cut of smaller size 

 than the circumference of the shoe, may, after being softened in 

 hot water, be kneaded in upon the sole, over the stopping, with 

 the thumb, and pressed around the edge sufficiently underneath 

 the web of the shoe to maintain its hold. With his foot thus 

 shod and cushioned and protected, the horse may return gra- 

 dually to hard work. 



Instead of the broad-web heavy shoe, it may be advisable, 

 in a case where the foot is thin of horn and the crust apt to 

 break away, to substitute a shoe as light as it can be made 

 consistent with its purpose. A shoe made narrow but thick in 

 the web will sometimes be found to answer very well when 

 used in conjunction with leather or gutta percha in the manner 

 before directed, such a shoe possessing the advantage of being 

 held on by smaller and fewer nails than what the broad shoe 

 requires. And whenever we meet with a foot of such descrip- 

 tion, with thin and weak or brittle crust, we are not to be parti- 

 cular as to either the number of the nails used to keep the shoe 

 on or the situations they occupy through the hoof; for some- 

 times it becomes necessary to nail the shoe all round in order to 



* See The Vkterinakian, vol. xxiii, j). 315. 



