262 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



engorgements, and swelling of the tendons, &c., that are 

 observed after long or rapid journeys. These accidents 

 arise less from the length of the journey, as has been 

 currently believed, than from the false practice of par- 

 ing the sole. 



"I am astonished that this method of shoeing has 

 not been employed long ago ; and I have much trouble 

 in persuading myself that I am the inventor. I am 

 more inclined to believe that it is only a copy of that 

 which has been practised by the first artist who thought 

 about shoeing horses. 



" If my suspicions are correct, the oblivion into 

 which it has fallen proves nothing against its perfection, 

 because the good as well as the bad are alike liable to 

 be forgotten. The multitude, more credulous than en- 

 lightened, are easily persuaded: hence the long, thick 

 shoes, those with calkins, then with thick heels, and 

 afterwards the thin. There is every reason to believe, 

 that, if the poor animals for whom all this has been done 

 could be allowed to speak as they must think, nothing 

 of the kind would have taken place, and they would 

 have preferred their ancient armature, which, having 

 only been designed to preserve the crust, had certainly 

 none of the inconveniences of that employed now-a- 

 days." 



Fleming, at the close of his review of Lafosse, 

 says, — 



'' Lafosse's experience of this admirable mode of pro- 

 tecting, while preserving, the foot, was derived from a 



