S66 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



the nails are not broken by the displacement of the shoe ; 

 there is a better adaptation of the clip at the toe, and a 

 more intimate adhesion is obtained between the iron and 

 the surface of the horn. 



' Hot shoeing endows the hoof with more resistance ; 

 the horn, heated by the iron, is less hygrometrical, and 

 less permeable by fluids. 



' M. Reynal thinks that the caloric that impregnates 

 the horn favourably disposes it for the reception of the 

 shoe ; that it destroys the absorbent, spongy, hygrometri- 

 cal properties of the horn, and renders it insensible to ex- 

 ternal influences. . . . With some show of reason, the 

 effects produced on horn by the hot iron have been com- 

 pared to those of fire on pieces of wood whose extremities 

 are superficially carbonized before being buried in the 

 ground. Every one knows that this operation con- 

 tributes to the preservation of the wood by preserving it 

 from the action of humidity.' 



Professor Renault put the two methods to the test of 

 what was looked upon by competent authorities as a con- 

 vincing experiment. He took two feet from a dead horse, 

 one of which had been shod in the ordinary manner by 

 fitting the iron plate to it while hot, and the other by the 

 cold plan, according to the prescribed rules. These feet 

 were immersed for twelve days in the water and mud of a 

 pond, and afterwards washed and exposed for eight days 

 to the action of heat. At the end of that period, the foot 

 that had been fitted with the cold shoe, the hoof of which 

 was previously swollen under the influence of humidity, 

 had lost a great part of its primitive volume by the action 

 of tlie heat. The shoe projected slightly all round the foot. 



