674 



SHOEING. 



FIG. 501. Hinge bar shoe for cure 

 of contraction. 



in contraction. It should be so fitted as to project a quarter of an 

 inch on either side of the foot, and so as to see the nail-holes pro- 

 jecting on either side of both outer and inner quarter. This accom- 

 plished, the bearing should be equal. The nails should be driven 

 halfway, first toward the toe, then toward the heel. The higher 

 they are driven the better, the shoe being fitted so wide there is no 



fear of pricking. The nails toward 

 the heels should be driven by al- 

 ternate taps on each side, because 

 the foot expands on account of be- 

 ing pared so thin on either side of 

 the frog. Considerable soreness 

 will result from this mode of treat- 

 ment, which may be relieved by 

 keeping the feet wet, or by poultic- 

 ing." 



This principle of treatment was 

 well understood long before Dun- 

 bar's day, and doubtless was ob- 

 tained by him from old authors. 

 In relation to the scoring of the 

 wall, J. Clark, in his work pub- 

 lished in 1782, says: 



" When, according to the general method, a long shoe with a 

 broad web is unfortunately put on, which is made thicker at the 

 heel than at the toe, the consequence which commonly ensues is 

 that of hindering the expansion of the heel of the foot, which in 

 that case soon overcontracts itself. This circumstance produces very 

 great pain to the foot by occasioning too great a compression of the 

 cartilages, and of the blood-vessels by which they are surrounded. 

 To ease these blood-vessels, I have known scores made perpendicularly 

 all the way down every part of the outward wall with a drawing-knife, 

 and the blood taken by a lancet underneath. This is but a partial 

 remedy, and frequently a bad one ; for although temporary ease 

 may be given to the foot by a process which possibly does diminish 

 the power of contraction in the heels, as long as the crust is weak- 

 ened by the scores on the wall; yet as the crust is perpetually renew- 

 ing itself, the heel has in a short time a power of becoming still 

 stronger and more contracted, after the temporary weakness has 

 ceased, which was occasioned by scores. But the worst of all, al- 

 though too often practiced in the case, is the cutting away the bars. 

 This causes the heels to contract, having no mechanical power to 

 open and hold the quarters in place." 



Bracy Clark, in his work published in 1809, in describing some 

 of his experiments on contracted feet, says: 



" The bars were pared away from the frog, the heels, as we were 



