xiv. PREFACE. 



tirely to mechanical proofs, which it is in the power of any 

 one to test for liimself The first and simplest, that occurs 

 to me, is to have a fore shoe removed, and then to take up 

 the foot in the manner, a smith would do, who was about 

 to prepare it to receive a new shoe ; in this position grasp 

 the foot firmly between both hands, placing a thumb upon 

 the point of junction between the crust and bar of either 

 side, and having secured a good purchase with the thumbs, 

 pull outwards with as much power, as the thumbs can be 

 made to exert, and if the foot be a tolerably healthy and 

 good shaped one, it will be at once perceived not only that 

 the crust yields to the force, but that cracks and fissures 

 on tlie surface of the frog open and close, as the force is 

 apphed, or withdrawn : this, I think, may be fairly ofifered 

 as proof that the horn is elastic ; but the experiment, which I 

 depend upon for proving, that this elastic property of the hoof 

 is called into action by the weight of the horse, is one, that I 

 have repeated over and over agam at intervals durmg the last 

 ten years upon my own horses and others with uniformly the 

 same result, varying only in degree m diflPerent individuals. 

 It is true, that I have found some horses, whose feet firom 

 a long series of bad shoeing and confinement in stalls have 

 almost entirely lost the power of expansion ; but as this was 

 the necessary consequence of the treatment, they had received, 

 I was neither surprised, nor disappointed at it. The position. 



