last : either the foot is of the shape, best adapted for its des- 

 tmed office, or it is not ; and, if it is of the right shape, which 

 I maintain it to be, why should not we, in making a shoe 

 for it, imphcitly follow that shape 1 But su23pose for a 

 moment, that it does not possess the form, best calculated 

 to support the horse under all circumstances, and that there 

 does exist a deficency of width at the heels ; do the projecting 

 portions of the shoe meet the difficulty, or supply that 

 deficiency 1 I think not ; for they can only support, what 

 rests upon them ; and the bare fact of tlieir projecting 

 beyond the foot at all shows, that no portion of the horse, 

 or his foot so much as touches them, much less derives 

 efficient support from them ; therefore to say the least of 

 them, they are useless appendages. 



Nothing is needed but the abandonment of a few such- 

 like absurd and untenable prejudices, to make one-sided nail- 

 ing as universal in the shoeing world, as the percussion lock 

 has become in the sjDortiag world : the improvement is equally 

 obvious, and the adoption of it equally easy ; but there is 

 this single, unfortunate difference, which prevents its equally 

 rapid spread ; the one apphes itself directly to increasing the 

 comfort, by facilitating the spo?'f of man ; while the other 

 almost entirely confines itself to diminishing the suffering of 

 the horse. If the horse could only possess himself of the 

 dog's power of appealing to men's sympathy through their 

 ears, the hardest hearted among them would sometimes be 

 made to sicken and turn away from acts, which they now 

 perpetrate with the utmost complacency, solely because the 

 poor brute suffers in silence. 



