DOUGLAS ON THE HOOF. 73 



each becomes dead and falls off in flakes, the growth 

 downwards of the new horn pushing off the old in 

 turn.' This being so, all paring of either sole or 

 frog is not only uncalled for but highly detrimental. 

 To such of us as have been in the habit of think- 

 ing of the horse's hoof as merely a homogeneous 

 block of horn, without any particular architectural 

 design, the lucid descriptions given by Mr. Douglas 

 must impart a new light. Some amongst us 

 cannot fail to ask themselves whether all these 

 perfectly designed and delicate, although strong, 

 arrangements were so ordered merely to have them 

 thrown out of use by scorching, stiffening, and 

 covering them with rigid iron, and lacerating and 

 compressing with nails the delicate tubes through 

 which flows the fluid on which the crust depends for 

 its health and vitality ? 



Literary shoeing smiths do not frequently appear 

 amongst us ; but America, as usual, has been able 

 to ' supply this long-felt want ' in the person of 

 Mr. Russell. He writes, in 1879, a book of 140 

 pages, containing fifty illustrations, twenty-seven of 

 which are of shoes of different pattern and form. 

 Mr. Gr. W. Bowler, V.S., writes the introduction, 

 and has ' carefully corrected the anatomical parts of 

 the work.' A man that has invented more than a 

 score of shoes of different principles and shape 

 must have been of an inquiring turn of mind ; but 

 the fact that so many different kinds were thought 

 to be necessary seems to argue against the necessity 

 of any of them. A great deal ought to be expected 



