220 UNASKED ADVICE. 



distance every day '' with tlie frog well let down on to- 

 the ground •/' but this good notion is spoiled by the 

 addition of " the sole being thinly pared/^ Many writers- 

 of that day waged war against an imaginary disease 

 called " contraction." '' ISTimrod " pointed out what 

 ought to have required no indication, viz., that contraction 

 may be a consequence of several diseases,, but is in itself 

 not a cause but an effect. 



This notion is at the present day not worth wasting ink 

 over^ so we will go on to the next notion, which had a 

 little consideration for Kature. This was Professor 

 Coleman^s bold assertion that " the frog must have pres- 

 sure or be diseased." The idea is undoubtedly correct ; 

 but his practice was like the move of a knight at chessr 

 one step forward, and the other to the side. He was 

 steering for the open sea of Nature, as I should be inclined 

 to call pressure on the frog ; but by a tack, like that of 

 the chess knight, ran upon the rock of art, as exemplified 

 by pp.ring the sole. He recommended the use of a shoe 

 thick at the toe and thin at the heel. This let the frog 

 on to the ground ; but, as he pared both sole and frog, 

 and put the toe above the heel, the shoe was a failure. 

 Then Mr. Bracy Clarke came to the front with a jointed 

 shoe — another failure. Mr. Miles, if he did not invent, 

 at all events brought prominently forward the advantages 

 of nailing the shoe far back on one side only. But he 

 pared the sole, the horse stood and worked entirely on 

 the wall of the hoof, and foot lameness was not much 

 decreased. Matters remained stationary for some twenty 

 years until lately, when an extensive crop of new systems 

 of shoes and shoeing has appeared. Alv/ays on the look- 

 out for stable reforms, I have given most of them a trial, 

 and my experience is at the service of anyone who cares 



