468 CONTRACTION. 



or metallic, and as are fixed to the hoofs with nails. Here, there- 

 fore, we find ourselves in an awkward dilemma. We cannot do 

 without horseshoes ; yet from the moment we nail them to the 

 hoofs do the feet begin to undergo more or less alteration in form, 

 and in too many instances to experience harm from their appli- 

 cation The art of shoeing has given rise to a wonderful deal 

 of difference of opinion and controversy, some thinking one 

 shape of shoe answering best, some another ; while some prefer 

 one mode of nailing it upon the hoof, others a different one. As 

 far as my own experience has served as a guide to me through 

 this labyrinth of opinion, I have ever found that method of 

 shoeing the preferable one which approached the nearest to 

 nature, or, in other words, which interfered the least with the 

 economv of the foot. If we could do without them, horseshoes 

 would, undoubtedly, be best abolished altogether ; but, since this 

 is impracticable, let us adopt such shoes and modes of attaching 

 them to the hoofs as are found to work the least mischief to the 

 feet. On this principle it is that a half- shoe is to be preferred 

 to a whole shoe, and for the same reason it is that tips, of all the 

 horseshoes that were ever invented, are the best, inasmuch as they 

 are the least objectionable. If those in the profession would come 

 forward and inform us of their experience — those who have had 

 any — of tip-shoeing, I believe it would uniformly be found, that 

 whatever objections might be urged against the use of tips, no one 

 would deny their tendency to interfere the least with the opera- 

 tions of the foot. If there be any horseshoe calculated to pre- 

 vent contraction, and navicularthritis as well, I feel no hesita- 

 tion myself in pronouncing that horseshoe to be the tip. In 

 saying so much, I am fully aware that tip-shoeing cannot be 

 introduced into general practice for reason of the roads horses 

 have to travel and work upon, and of the numbers of horses 

 having hoofs of too weak and brittle a fibre to stand work with- 

 out their chipping and breaking and wearing too rapidly away : 

 yet on horses whose hoofs are strong and hard enough, and 

 whose work is light enough, to admit of their wearing tips for 

 any length of time, or in situations where the roads or parts of 



