BOURGELAT ON SHOEING. 491 



after Lafosse had published his treatise, and their protest 

 appears to have carried the mind of the crowd/ 



Bourgelat/ the illustrious founder of those French veteri- 

 nary schools, which have done that country such honour 

 and rendered her agriculture such great service, introduced 

 another system of farriery, which has prevailed more or 

 less in France until the present time. ' Shoeing,' says this 

 professor, ' is a methodical action of the hand on the feet 

 of animals, on which it is practicable and necessary. By 

 it the foot of the horse, principally, ought to be main- 

 tained in the condition in which it is found if its con- 

 formation is good and regular, and its defects should be 

 repaired by shoeing if it is found vicious and deformed. 

 By shoeing, also, it is often possible to remedy the inevit- 

 able consequences of disproportions between various parts 



of the body, or at least to modify their effects to 



obviate those which result from defectiveness in the direc- 

 tion of the limbs to facilitate, to a certain degree, 



freedom and regularity in the execution of movements 



and to prevent those false positions of the limbs 



to which certain habits appear to dispose them.' The 

 nails were to be regularly disposed between the toe and 

 the heel, and the shoe bent up or adjusted in such a way 



' Reponse a la Nouvelle Pratique de Ferrer du Sieur Lafosse. Par 

 les Maitres Marechaux de Paris. Paris, 1758. 



" Essai Tlieorique et Pratique sur la Ferrure. Paris, 1771, 1804. 

 There were also published in France about this period : — 



Ronden. Observations sur des Articles Concernant la Marecha- 

 lerie. Paris, i']S9- 



Hhissant. Medecine des Chevaux. Paris, 1763. 



Weyrother. Le Parfait Ecuyer Militaire de Campagne. Paris, 1768. 



Druts. L'Anti-Marcchal. Liege, 1773. 



Chahert. Ferrure des Chevaux. Paris, 1782. 



