X PREFACE TO THE THIRTEENTH EDITION. 



and valuable works of Mr. Bracy Clark make a conspicuous 

 figure, but appear to be brought forward merely as a subject for 

 criticism. " Mr. Clark," says the author, " takes great pains to 

 prove that he has discovered that the hoof is elastic, a circum- 

 stance that has been known for inore than two hundred years ; 

 and that shoeing is productive of injury to the feet, which was 

 known even before it was generally practised. Wild horses, as 

 ■well as the greater part of those employed in agriculture and 

 commerce, in Persia, Ethiopia, Tartary, Japan, &c., are never 

 shocd ; how is it, then, that shoeing is so generally practised in 

 Europe ? The answer is, that shoes are absolutely necessary, in 

 consequence of the heavy burdens they have to carry, the hard 

 stony roads they are obliged to travel on, and the necessity 

 they are under of exerting, with so little cessation, the whole of 

 their power," &c. " These considerations are sufficient to 

 prove that shoeing is both injurious and necessary, and should 

 arrest the pens of those modern writers who are daily claiming 

 as discoveries what have been known for four hundred years." 

 Mr. Clark has certainly taken pains to prove that shoes, of what- 

 ever form they may be, are always injurious, and that however 

 carefully the hoofs are pared and otherwise treated, as long as 

 inflexible iron shoes are nailed to them, the feet are constantly 

 in a progressive state towards disease. If this be really the 

 case, — if shoeing is invariably so injudicious, — Mr. Clark has 

 an indisputable claim to the discovery. 



I cannot find any passage in Mr. Clark's work to justify our 

 author's assertion, that he has taken great ])ains {fait tons ses 

 efforts) to prove that he is the discoverer of the elasticity of the 

 hoof. He says, " I have detected some undiscovered parts in 

 the hoof, and some circumstances in the plan of its structure, 

 before unknown, and especially pointed out for observation its 

 elastic properties." This surely cannot be considered as laying 

 claim to such a discovery. One of the circumstances or parts 

 of the hoof which Mr. Clark claims as a discovery is that which 

 he calls the coronary/ frog band. " This," says M. Jauze," has 

 been described by 13ourgelat, under the name of Bonrrelet grais- 

 seux.^^ Bourgelat, in his Essay on Shoeing, says, " When the 

 foot is taken out of its horny box (the hoof), the first thing that 

 strikes ns is un hourrclet, which forms the su])erior part of it." 

 This name is evidently applied by Bourgelat to that part which 

 ]Mr. Coleman has named coronary ligament. In speaking of the 

 lioof Bourgelat says, " the thickness of this horny box is not 

 the same through its whole extent; it is most considerable in 

 front, and diminishes gradually towards the heels ; it is much 

 thinner at tlie upper })art, or coronet, than below, and the 

 inside c[uartcr is weaker than the outside : the thickness of these 

 as well as the fore part, increasing towards the bottom. On 



