462 CONTRACTION. 



with the hind feet ; as also, from the natural weakness of its 

 fibre, and consequent feeble power to contract, is the case with 

 the naturally spreading or flat foot. But, in the foot in which, 

 from the strong and exuberant fibre of its hoof, from the height 

 of the heels, the concavity of the sole, and the little or no 

 pressure there is made upon the frog, there is evidently a dis- 

 position to contraction, shoeing will very influentially operate in 

 bringing about such anormal alteration in its form. I have no 

 objection to adopt, on this part of my subject, the first three 

 words of (he motto chosen by Bracy Clark, 



Naturam ferro expellis ; 



though I cannot add, usque dum non recurret, because I feel 

 that Nature, up to an incalculable advanced period of time, pre- 

 serves, and, if released from her fetters — the shoe — manifests, her 

 power of returning. 



Absence of Pressure to the Frog is another indi- 

 rect cause of contraction, though one of inferior efficacy to the 

 former. It was such a favourite, however, with Coleman, that 

 he placed it in the foremost rank of causation : his argument 

 being mainly based upon the notorious facts — that horses pos- 

 sessing sound and prominent frogs exhibit open heels; while 

 such hoofs as have their frogs shrunk or diseased or cut away, 

 become contracted. Such reasoning, however, specious as 

 it may appear, is untenable, inasmuch as it is grounded in 

 error. Coleman took the case of shod horses, and, as far as they 

 went, he found, with some exceptions, that, so long as the frog 

 was preserved sound and prominent, contraction was in a degree 

 opposed ; whereas, it frequently supervened upon faultiness or 

 defalcation of frog. But, did he look for, and if he had would 

 he have found, the same result happening in horses without 

 shoes 1 Rather, would he not have discovered that horses' feet, 

 even though they were contracted, and had diseased frogs or 

 hardly any frogs at all, supposing the shoes were taken off them, 

 would, under the freedom from restraint their structures enjoyed 

 in the absence of shoes, have by degrees recovered, not only their 

 lost width, but their sound and prominent frogs as well, time only 



