572 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



nails sustained the effects of contact with the ground, and 

 were, in this way, economical. 2. They secured the 

 animal wearing them a safe footing on the pavement, 

 either in summer or winter. 



No doubt, the early inhabitants of Gaul and Britain 

 have testified to these advantages two thousand years 

 ago. 



M. Perrier, believing that the ordinary expansion 

 theory was a fallacy, and that the supposed movement 

 took place at the anterior part of the foot, introduced a 

 method of shoeing which was intended to promote the 

 toe and quarter resiliency. The hoof was pared as thin 

 as possible at these parts, while the heels were permitted 

 to grow strong. The shoe was very narrow in front, but 

 wide and thick towards the ends of the branches. The 

 method of shoeing appeared to be, in many respects, 

 almost exactly the reverse of that in every-day use. Its 

 trial appears to have been very brief and unsatisfac- 

 tory. 



Still more recently, M. Watrin attempted to modify the 

 ordinary method of shoeing, though in a very unreasonable 

 manner. His object appears to have been merely directed 

 to prevent contraction of the heels ; and we can scarcely 

 doubt that the means by which he sought to attain that 

 end were those most likely to induce this deformity. The 

 sole was well pared, the frog and bars mutilated, the ex- 

 ternal quarter of the fore-foot was reduced to a lower level 

 than the inner, though in the hind-foot it was the reverse. 

 The shoe was that generally in use in France, only at the 

 inner corner of each heel it had a clip that bent down and 

 grasped the inner aspect of the bar. This shoe and 



