IMPORTANCE OF PROPER SHOEfNG. 679 



said that it diminishes the risk of sprains of the back 

 tendons; but this is not correct, if one may judge from 

 the number of lame horses to be seen in those countries 

 where this adjustment is practised. It also tends to slip- 

 ping. 



I am satisfied that the English plane-surfaced shoe is 

 the best in every respect. 



Thus far, then, we have devoted some attention to the 

 uses and abuses of horse-shoeing— shoeing as it ought 

 to be practised, and shoeing as it is generally practised. 

 Without doing more than pointing out the most salient 

 features of the subject — all details relative to the organiza- 

 tion of the horse's foot and the practice of farriery being 

 reserved for another opportunity — it will be seen that 

 though of vital importance to the welfare of the useful 

 creature, nothing is more easy of execution than a rational 

 system of shoeing ; and few arts are more difficult to 

 practise than the ordinary irrational one, simply because 

 the artisan has destroyed what he cannot repair, and must 

 then use his best skill to protect what remains. It is 

 the case of an imperfect art attempting to improve and 

 beautify nature. 



The subject of shoeing is an important one in another 

 point of view. For very many years, veterinary surgeons 

 have agreed that various diseases of the limbs have 

 a hereditary tendency ; the principal of these are splints, 

 ossification of the lateral cartilages, ossific deposits around 

 the pastern bones, navicular disease, and spavin in the 

 hock. To what extent these maladies might be due at 

 first to the influence of improper shoeing, in addition to 



