150 HORSES AND ROADS. 



the face in every instance — the shoe ? It is true 

 that continual suffering, which would cause nervous 

 irritability, would in most cases have told upon the 

 constitution, but he confounded effect with cause. 

 He states also that navicular disease is caused by 

 pressure on the frog — a diseased frog, of course — 

 rendered incapable by the farrier of performing its 

 functions ; and afterwards says that, as far as his 

 knowledge extends, it is unknown in the unbroken 

 animal. Of course it is. The unbroken animal is 

 also unshod, yet he can gallop about amongst loose 

 granite or over solid rocks with impunity. Mr. 

 Douglas says that goats never suffer from navicular 

 disease, but that he believes they would do so if they 

 were shod. 



Perhaps some of those correspondents who have 

 so kindly come forward to give their experience of 

 unshod horses will still further favour us by saying 

 whether or not they had found amongst them 

 many ' crib-biters,' ' wind-suckers,' or * weavers.' 

 The writer has never met with a single case of 

 either of these three; therefore he is forced into 

 the conclusion that shoeing cannot be considered 

 entirely blameless as to their cause. Some day a 

 pathologist will arise who will give an account of 

 influences now ' veiled in obscurity.' In the mean- 

 time practical experiment will convince some that 

 by giving up shoeing they have struck at the root 

 of a host of diseases and vices. 



Sight could not, of course, be restored to the 

 blind, nor an anchylosis be loosened, and so forth ; 



