712 SHOEING. 



to conform with best advantage to the condition of the case. 

 First, do nothing that will irritate or make the foot sore. It sim- 

 ply must be supported to the best advantage, and the mobility 

 aided by rounding the toe, or setting the calks well back under it, 

 as shown by Figs. 531 and 55 



EXTRACTS FROM STANDARD AUTHORS. 



This chapter would be incomplete without reference to a few 

 authorities, showing the bad effect of paring the sole and frog 

 excessively, rasping the outer surface of the hoof and the use of 

 thick, badly-fitting shoes. I will call attention first to. the most 

 prominent authority, Prof. Coleman, from whose teachings all the 

 modern works in this country have been principally guided in 

 their instructions. In January, 1792, a Veterinary College was 

 started in London. A short time afterward Edward Colo- 

 man was appointed Chief Professor. I cannot do better here than 

 copy from Prof. Gamgee's work on " Shoeing," published in Lon- 

 don in 1874, in relation to Coleman's teaching. He says : 



" In England, since Prof. Coleman ruthlessly destroyed the em- 

 pirical knowledge of the old masters, and substituted for it a system 

 of fantastic and often cruel notions, we have been a prey to endless 

 speculative theories. The result is that with the best horses in the 

 world, we have a far larger proportion of lame ones than are to be 

 found in any other country. . . . 



" It was a kind of teaching on the foot and on shoeing that did 

 the incalculable and, I fear, almost irreparable damage which has 

 brought suffering on horses and shortened their existence, which 

 has spoiled farriers by leading them astray on false pretexts, and 

 has entailed discredit on the English Veterinary School. . . . 



" One change, among others introduced by Mr. Coleman, has 

 entailed, 1 believe, a more lasting damage 011 the art farriery 

 than any of his many other crochets, which have unfortunately 

 become thoroughly parts of English horse shoeing. He introduced 

 the drawing-knife, and made it supercede the buttress for preparing 

 the feet for shoeing. The buttress is the instrument still in use for 

 paring down the wall surface to receive the shoe every where except 

 in England and parts of the New World, to which English hands 

 and language have carried our modes of shoeing, such as it has 

 become only within the present century. 



" Old men can remember the buttress being in general use 

 throughout Great Britain ; but the way it was banished from En- 

 glish practice is known to few ; and its supercedence, and these 

 remarks on the effects of the change, may astonish many. The 



