SHOEING. 119 



Like all nature's laws, the truth necessitated not that show of mastery 

 in which the ignorant especially delight. The famous screw shoe is 

 everywhere admitted to have been a decided failure; nevertheless, the 

 pride of poor humanity could not relinquish the hope of compelling life; 

 through the power, to direct mechanical force. Screws and rivets had 

 proved alike hurtful, but there still remained other artifices, which were 

 as yet untried. The frog-pressure shoe was one of these, which ultimately 

 lamed many horses, without having benefited a single one. The wedge- 

 heeled shoe is, however, occasionally encountered, even at the present 

 day. It consists of a shoe, imperfectly seated upon its upper surface, 

 and which has the heels much thicker or higher than the toe. The iron, 

 at the inside heel, is beaten into an angular form, the apex of the angle 

 looking toward the foot. The intention is, that the heel, resting upon 

 a slanting surface, should slide downward and outward, thus being 

 forced gradually to expand. The shoe may be said, up to a particular 

 point, to answer the inventor's expectations. The hoof certainly does 

 slide downward and outward ; only, when this is accomplished, the wall 

 has been torn from its attachments, while the apex of the wedge, coming 

 into contact with the soft sole, has actually forced its way through the 

 horn covering the last-named part, thereby lamentably laming the poor 

 horse. Could the teaching of principle have been interpreted, so sad a 

 result might have been understood without positively experimenting 

 with breathing life. 



A WEI)Ofi-H£EL£I> SHOE. 



But pride has no brains, and a very limited degree of feeling. .A 

 modification of the above shoe is still to be met in the London shops. 

 The nail holes are principally at the toe, one only being inserted at the 

 most forward part of each quarter. The author's proposed plan of fas- 

 tening the shoe is, therefore, no positive novelty ; since the smith, before 



