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experiments uj^on the stibject ; I mean the excessive sensi- 

 tiveness of the piibhc about castmg shoes : it is the only 

 circumstance, connected witli shoeing, to which they are 

 thoroughly and practically alive. Some j^ersons even carry 

 the matter so far, as to impose a fine uj^on the smith, 

 whenever their horses lose a shoe, particidarly if it should 

 occur in the hunting field ; and the great test with most 

 of them of a good sheer is, that his shoes are never cast. 

 While this is the state of the public mind, it would be 

 highly imprudent for a veterinary surgeon or ferrier to risk 

 its being said, that his horse had lost a shoe ; that it was 

 the result of an experiment, would in no wise save his re- 

 putation with the pubhc : the fact would be remembered, 

 but the cause forgotten. 



To put forth a mere theory, unsupported by facts, would 

 do no good : the public are very shy of being made the 

 vehicle for supplying facts, to bolster up a theory, especially 

 in cases, where a fadure entails inconvenience like that of 

 casting a shoe. 



Mr. James Turner is the only veterinary surgeon, who 

 has grappled with the subject in earnest ; his great discovery 

 of the nature and causes of navicular disease led him first 

 to adopt the system of one-sided nailing, as a j^reventive ; 

 and the two taken together may with truth and justice be 

 pronounced the most valuable and important addition, that 

 has been made to veterinary knowledge for ages past ; but 

 it would never have answered for him to have endangered a 

 great principle by too minutely carrying out the details. 

 He established the important fact, that horses could work 



