PLINY. 41 



ance to the conquering armies of Greece and Rome, was 

 yet, it seems, unknown to them. Of this, in tlieir writings, 

 we have apparently ample evidence. 



We have similar injunctions and observations with 

 regard to the care and quality of the hoofs, and to their 

 being uncovered, as well as to the injuries sustained in 

 travelling, as we had from the Greek writers. No author 

 mentions metal plates for horses' hoofs fastened on with 

 nails. 



Pliny (a.d, 66) is very minute and circumstantial in 

 his history of discoveries, and in other portions of his 

 writings. He tells us that Tychius, the Boeotian, first 

 invented or taught the art of making shoes for the feet 

 of men, and enumerates many other discoverers ; but 

 nothing whatever as to the invention or employment of 

 horse-shoes, though he speaks of the introduction of 

 bridles and saddles by Pelethronius, and the people of 

 Phrygia as being the first to use chariots. With regard 

 to the camel, however, he follows Aristotle closely in his 

 description of that animal's foot, and the way in which it 

 was then protected : ' The camel has pastern bones like 

 those of the ox, but somewhat smaller, the feet being 

 cloven, with a slight line of division, and having a fleshy 

 sole, like that of the bear ; hence it is, that in a long 

 journey the animal becomes fatigued, and the foot cracks, 

 if it is not shod (calceatu)^ ' 



The term employed by the Roman naturalist to 



^ Hist. Naturalis, lib. xi, cap. io6. ' Camelo tali similes bubulis, 

 sed minores paulo. Est enim bisculus discrimine exiguo pes imus, 

 vestigio carnoso, ut ursi j qua de causa in longiore itinere sine calceatu 

 fatiscunt.' Edit, Gabriels Brotier. London, 1826. 



