PRODUCTION OF DISEASE. 68 1 



his sole and frog on the ground, just to ease them ; and 

 yet they are so tender that he would be even worse off 

 than he is now with thick shoes on, and perhaps calkins 

 higher at one side than the other, throwing the strain 

 all on one side of the limb ? This tenderness has been 

 ascribed by those who believed in lateral expansion 

 and sole descent, and consequently patronized paring to 

 excess, to the binding action of the nails, standing on 

 straw, being kept in stalls — indeed, everything but the 

 right cause, and which they had themselves been guilty of 

 inflicting. The gradual contraction of the hoof, the 

 diseased frog, and the painful altered gait, were never 

 ascribed to anything else than the cursed contact of 

 the iron shoe. And yet the changed and unnatural 

 direction of the limbs, induced by the pain in the feet, 

 as well as by the unreasonable shoes applied to these 

 poor tortured organs, was also producing disease in other 

 parts of the member. 



These diseases have usually been attributed to the 

 fast paces, and concussion on the hard roads. To a cer- 

 tain extent this may be correct, but it must be borne in 

 mind that we at the same time have maintained foot and 

 limb in the worst possible condition to resist these influ- 

 ences. 



The Arab method of shoeing is far superior to our 

 own in this respect. The shoe rests on the wall, sole, and 

 frog of the foot, the latter being particularly supported 

 by the light metal plate ; the nails, rough and clumsy as 

 they are, obtain a short thick hold of the sole and crust, 

 and are badly riveted — though it is extremely rare that a 

 shoe comes off on a journey lasting for weeks together. 



