574 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



laminated bars forged with a deep groove, or grooves, 

 running along the middle of one of their faces, and from 

 these bars shoes were made. The foot surface being flat, 

 and the ground side deeply cut by the groove, afforded a 

 tolerably secure grip of the pavement. 



I have not been able to learn whether these were ever 

 much employed, or whether they are now in use. From 

 what I have heard, it would appear that, like all the 

 i".ichine-made shoes in this country, their utility was 

 limited, and they scarcely attained notoriety before they 

 became partially or totally obsolete. 



Professor Tabourin, of Lyons, introduced yer.s' apincon 

 circulaire, which were made by machinery. The result of 

 this experiment in hoof-armature has not been made 

 public, I believe. 



To a wonderful extent, it has been otherwise with a 

 shoe and method of shoeing which, perhaps, more than any 

 other in this century, has attracted public attention. In 

 1865, M. Charlier, a veterinary surgeon in Paris, brought 

 to notice a patented method of shoeing which he desig- 

 nated ' periplantaire.' It proved to be the greatest inno- 

 vation on the established routine of the age, so far as the 

 farrier's art is concerned. And yet, after all, like the 

 ' ferrure Benjamin,' the ' ferrure Charlier ' in France is but 

 a page of old Lafosse's treatise, which the oftener we read, 

 the more we wonder at the existence of the grossest ab- 

 surdities in shoeing, and at the presence of painful and de- 

 structive diseases that ruin the horse and prove sad sources 

 of bewilderment to his owner. 



The 'ferrure Charlier' is a gentle modijication of the 

 ' fer incruste enclave ' or ' croissant ' of Lafosse, and the 



