96 HORSES AND ROADS. 



economy of the whole foot, and its maintenance in 

 health, also lend their aid in producing sound horn. 

 Without the removal of shoes the ' water cure ' 

 cannot be a complete success. Mayhew says : ' The 

 heels of the horse may become rigid and wired in 

 by the fixing powers exercised by the nails of the 

 shoe. But remove these nails, allow the foot that 

 motion which is needful to the health, and its 

 internal structures may recover their lost functions. 

 The veterinary mind was, however, slow to recognise 

 so plain a rule. Like all Nature's laws, the truth 

 necessitated not that show of mastery in which the 

 ignorant especially delight.' 



The writer has already confessed his inability to 

 agree with Mayhew in everytliing he says ; and he 

 thinks that here he is unjust to veterinary sur- 

 geons. There is, perhaps, not one among them who 

 would not order the removal of shoes oftener than 

 he now does, if he could be sure that his order 

 would be attended to. Owners rebel, up to the 

 last point, against what will evidently throw the 

 horse out of work for some considerable length of 

 time. They prefer ' patching up.' 



It is not sufficiently acknowledged, or understood, 

 that veterinary surgeons have to deal with people 

 who generally want their ' say ' in all cases of lame- 

 ness. In other matters they are more tractable ; 

 but every one thinks he knows something about 

 lameness, and almost every one tries to shirk what 

 every practitioner would recommend, if he con- 

 veniently could — REST. But, knowing, as they do, 



