576 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



completely in favour of my procedure, and numerous 

 experiments made in every condition have afforded me 

 the following results. . . . This shoeing consists in the 

 methodical application of a small bar of iron or steel, bent 

 on the flat, thicker and wider at the toe and sides of the 

 toe than at the quarters and heels, especially in its outer 

 branch ; it is about the width of the crust at its upper 

 face, is perforated by from four to six nail-holes, rarely 

 more, and is fitted into a groove or recess made at the 

 inferior border of the \vd\\, by means of small English 

 nails with very thin shanks, driven in the usual way. 

 Simple in conception, as it is in execution, this shoeing 

 has many advantages, and its consequences are immense. 

 I will endeavour to prove this to you. First, let us re- 

 member what our learned colleague. Professor Bouley, has 

 said in his admirable works on shoeing : " The art of the 

 farrier ought to be to preserve to the hoof the integrity 

 of its form, essentially allied to that of its functions ; and 

 this result can only be "obtained in leaving to the bars, the 

 buttresses {arcs-boutants — the angle formed by the bar 

 and crust), and the frog and sole all their power of re- 

 sistance ; in protecting them without interfering with their 

 action, their contact with the ground, their suppleness, or 

 their natural flexibility." 



*No mode of shoeing as practised to-day can com- 

 pletely respond to these various demands. To apply to the 

 sole of the foot a metallic plate, more or less wide, but al- 

 ways inflexible, restrains it, elevates the frog, prevents its 

 participating in weight-bearing, and, do as we may, hinders 

 its natural functions, destroys more or less rapidly its supple- 

 ness, the elasticity of the horny box, and, in a word, in- 



