UNSCIENTIFIC SHOEING. 603 



nails so closely jammed to each other, and if any elasticity 

 or. lateral expansion exists at the lower margin of the fore- 

 foot (as the patentee asserts), it must be apparent that it 

 would no longer be permitted when this shoe is nailed 

 on. The projecting calks at the toes must greatly tend 

 to induce stumbling, particularly with saddle-horses, 

 while they would cause dreadful wounds in kicking. 

 So far the shoe is a defective one ; and when the calks 

 are worn off, which happens in a brief period if horses 

 are employed on paved roads, it is but little different 

 from the ordinary shoe. Being bevelled or concave on 

 the foot as well as the ground surface, it as readily allows 

 stones and mud to insinuate themselves between itself 

 and the sole, while from the method of applying it, it 

 is just as likely to produce corns, sandcracks, and the 

 other maladies mentioned, as to prevent or cure them. 



In December, 1868, the mode of attaching it to the 

 foot looked most unscientific, if not cruel and barbarous. 

 A visit to the place where some omnibus-horses were being 

 experimented upon, a few days after the newspaper article 

 we have quoted from was published, proved a great dis- 

 appointment. One of the merits of this system was said 

 to rest upon the wonderful discovery that the horse's frog 

 was intended naturally to come into contact with the 

 ground ; and as the full benefit of this novel announcement 

 was, it appeared, to be immediately bestowed on the un- 

 fortunate horses, the problem as how this could be done 

 with a shoe very much thicker than that in ordinary wear, 

 and provided with additional projections from its ground 

 face, was being readily solved. The knife and rasp were as 

 actively employed as ever ; thin crusts and thin soles were 



