568 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



workmen who were unconscious of his presence, in order 

 to note the exact number of seconds during which they 

 held the hot shoe to the foot. These observations proved, 

 that in shoeing loo hoofs, the hot shoe was kept in con- 

 tact with the horn on an average of from 46 to 47 seconds ; 

 that the maximum of this application was 80 seconds, and 

 the minimum 29 seconds. He never knew of a horse be- 

 ing injured in this manner. 



It may be useful to know Delafond's conclusions as to 

 the relative influence of various degrees of temperature 

 on the foot : — 



' I. The shoe warmed to a dark red heat, the carbon- 

 ized portion of the sole not having been removed by the 

 buttress, transmits more caloric to the living tissues within 

 a given time than the shoe heated to a bright red {rouge 

 cerise). 



' 2. The thickness of the sole being the same, the 

 shoe heated to a dark red causes a deeper and more severe 

 burn than the bright red one. 



'3. These experiments confirm what was stated in 

 1758 by Lafosse, that it is not the shoe heated to bright 

 red that most frequently causes burns of the vascular sole, 

 but rather that which is scarcely red or black heated.' ' 



Latterly, the few advocates of cold fitting blamed the 

 hot method for causing dryness of the horn and con- 

 traction of the hoof; but they either kept out of sight, or 

 were not cognisant of the fact, that these conditions had 

 been complained of when nothing but cold fitting was 

 known. 



In a few years the cold fitting method in France had 



' O. Delafond. Recueil de Med. Veterinaire, p. 951. 1845. 



