ON SHOEING. 333 



iimch diminished. It was most on the left side, which, however, had resumed its 

 former degree of inclination. 



At the expiration of four months, the horse was sent to work. His master, how- 

 ever, doubting the stability of the cure, sold him, for which he ought to have had his 

 own legs broken, and he fell into bad hands. He was worked hardly, and half 

 starved ; nevertheless, the calculus continued to diminish, and the lameness alto- 

 gether disappeared. He soon, however, passed into better hands. He was bought 

 by a farmer at Chalons, in whose service he long remained, in good condition, and 

 totally free from lameness. His last owner gave him the name of Old Broken Leg.* 



Fracture of the coffin-bone. — This is an accident of very rare occurrence, and 

 difficult to distinguish from other causes of lameness. The animal halts very con- 

 siderably — the foot is hot and tender — the pain seems to be exceedingly great, and 

 none of the ordinary causes of lameness are perceived. According to Hurtrel D'Ar- 

 boval, it is not so serious an accident as has been represented. The fractured portions 

 cannot be displaced, and in a vascular bone like this, the union of the divided parts 

 will be readily effected. 



Mr. Percivall very properly remarks, that, " buried as the coffin and navicular 

 bones are within the hoof, and out of the way of all external injury as well as of mus- 

 cular force, fracture of them cannot proceed from ordinary causes. It is, perhaps, 

 thus produced : — in the healthy foot, in consequence of the elasticity of their connec- 

 tions, these bones yield or spring under the impression they receive from the bones 

 above, and thus are enabled to bear great weights, and sustain violent shocks without 

 injury ; but, disease in the foot is often found to destroy this elasticity, by changing 

 the cartilage into bone, which cannot receive the same weight and concussion without 

 risk of fracture. Horses that have undergone the operation of neurotomy more fre- 

 quently meet with this accident than others, because they batter their senseless feet 

 with a force which, under similar circumstances, pain would forbid the others from 

 doing."! 



Fracture of the navicular bone has been sufficiently considered under the article 

 " Navicular Joint Disease," p. 309. 



Mr. Mayer sums up his account of the treatment of fractures in a way that reflects 

 much credit on him and the profession of which he is a member. " Let your reme- 

 dies," says he, " be governed by those principles of science, those dictates of humanity, 

 and that sound discretion, which, while they raise the moral and intellectual supe- 

 riority of man, distinguish the master of his profession from the bungling empiric.":}: 



CHAPTER XVII. 

 ON SHOEING. 



The period when the shoe began to be nailed to the foot of the horse is uncertain. 

 William the Norman introduced it into our country. 



We have seen, in the progress of our inquiry, that, while it affords to the foot of the 

 horse that defence which seems now to bs necessary against the destructive effects 

 of our artificial and flinty roads, it has entailed on the animal some evils. It has 

 limited or destroyed the beautiful expansibility of the lower part of the foot — it has 

 led to contraction, although that contraction has not always been accompanied by 

 lameness — in the most careful fixing of the best shoe, and in the careless manufac- 

 ture and setting on of the bad one, irreparable injury has occasionally been done to 

 the horse. 



We will first attend to the preparation of the foot for the shoe, for more than is 

 g'enerally imagined, of its comfort to the horse and its safety to the rider, depends on 

 this. If the master would occasionally accompany the horse to the forge, more 

 expense to himself and punishment to the horse would be spared than, perhaps, he 



* Recueil de Med. Vet. 1834, p. 7. No apology is offered for the introduction of cases liko 

 this. The cause of science and of humanity is equally served. 

 + Percivall's Hippopathology, vol. i., p. 272. t Vet. Trana. vol. i., p. 245. 



