NAIL-HOLES — FORM AND TOSITIOX. 



139 



described as badly holed. Each hole must be funnel-shaped, 

 clean and open. In the fore-feet the nail holes can only be 

 placed in the anterior half of the shoe without injury to the 

 elasticity of the foot, and the last nail hole in the outer quarter 

 of the shoe should not be more than vV to %■ of an inch behind 

 an imaginary transverse line dividing the shoe into two equal 

 parts ; that in the inner branch as close as possible to it. This 

 division of the foot into an anterior and posterior half responds 

 to the varying thickness of the wall and to the dilatation 

 which occurs in the posterior half of the foot. The direction 

 of the holes must vary according to the varying obliquity of 

 the wall of the foot. The nail holes of the toe should, there- 

 fore, be directed obliquely inwards, the more lateral less so, and 

 the nail holes of the quarter should point almost directly up- 

 wards. In contracted feet it may in fact be needful to even 

 give the nail holes of the quarter a slight cant outwards. 

 Further, it should be remembered that the less thickness of 

 the inner horny wall and the position of the shoe on the foot 

 call for Jincr imncliing in the inner limb of the shoe.* 



The nail holes of the hmd shoe may be distributed through 

 the two anterior thirds of the shoe, though the nail holes of the 

 toe should be wider apart (fig. 87). The hind foot has, in com- 

 parison with the fore, stronger 

 quarters and is less exposed to 

 disease. The extension of the nail 

 holes into the posterior half of 

 the shoe is justified by practice. 

 Were it neglected, the shoe would 

 soon become loose or lost during^ 

 work in heavy ground. This prac- 

 tice is especially necessary in shoe- 

 ing military horses, either during 

 manccuvres or in war. The offi- 

 cial German military shoe, accord- 

 ino" to its size, contains from six- 

 teen to twenty nail holes (fig. 90) ; not, however, for the purpose 



* In this connection it is surprising to find veterinary surgeons (who are also 

 owners of forges) still gravely disputing as to whether nail holes sliould correspond 

 in inclination to the wall of the foot or be perfectly perpendicular. See Veter- 

 inary Record, Nos. 404 and 405, 1896, and Veterinarian (Reports of Veterinary 

 Medical Societies), Fourth Series, No. 497, May 1896, p. 181. 



Fig. 90. — German military shoe for 

 fore-feet. 



