AMERICAN EXPERIENCE OF THE CHARLIER SYSTEM. 65 



enough for a medical man, went dead against this 

 opinion, saying that ordinary shoeing did no harm 

 whatever — it was the 'pounding' of the foot on 

 the road which produced disease in the foot. He 

 apparently only owned one horse at a time, as he 

 says * my horse,' and he was not able to make him 

 last long, for he says that he was continually obliged 

 to be replacing him, because every one of them got 

 laminitis, or what is sometimes called either founder 

 or else fever in the feet — all three terms being used 

 to signify the same disease. When questioned as to 

 how he had his horses shod, he stated, ' I tell my 

 blacksmiths, when they put a shoe on, to heat it 

 red hot.' This, by itself, would quite account for 

 founder ; and it appears strange that a medical man 

 should have been in such a red-hot hurry to expound 

 such views, unless it was that, as a medical man., 

 he thought to carry influence. However, if this was 

 what he counted upon, he was singularly in error ; 

 for Mr. Bowditch, a practical farmer, one of those 

 irrepressible Yankees who will persist in thinking 

 for themselves, rose and said that formerly he had 

 had the same trouble as the doctor with his horses, 

 but that he had found out for himself that the 

 only way to avoid founder was ' to shoe the horse 

 properly, that is putting on as little iron as possible ; 

 let it cover the toe of the foot, and let the frog 

 come down so that it will take the jar of the foot.' 

 When asked, ' Do you have your shoes put on red 

 hot, as the doctor does?' he answered that he 

 made his blacksmith ' put the shoe on only as hot 



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