INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF SLIPPING. 5 



railway companies are only cited because they ha\e 

 actually in their employ the men who could see this 

 at a glance, if their attention were directed to it, 

 and almost as soon remedy the evil. But no — they 

 continue in the same old groove, and squander 

 thousands yearly upon horseflesh, at the same time 

 that they are also cruelly working a noble animal, 

 by many considered the most noble and useful ever 

 designed by Nature for man's use. 



Besides the mere hard loork taken out of horses 

 in holding back a load, it must be apparent to those 

 who know anything about the animals, that they 

 also suffer severely from many diseases brought on 

 thereby. Either slipping and shaking over slippery 

 pavements, or knuckling over on roads which do not 

 allow them to slide, causes a great strain and vibra- 

 tion on the nails with which their shoes are attached, 

 and from them to the hoofs in which the nails are 

 imbedded, thence to the bones and cartilages en- 

 closed in the hoofs, and so on up to the hock and 

 knee, at the very least, besides causing severe strain 

 on all tendons and their sheaths. Hence they are 

 found to be suffering from a great variety of diseases 

 in one, many, or all of these parts, in a short time 

 after they have been first harnessed ; let us say in 

 the shape of corns, thrush, quittor, cutting, sand- 

 cracks, ring-bone, greasy heels, seedy toe, drop-sole, 

 or pumiced feet, ossified cartilages, which are some- 

 times called side-bones, splints, spavins, navicular 

 disease, &c. Horses are often to be seen with a pad 

 confined by a leather strap, or else tarred string, 



