INTRODUCTORY. 



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HUMANE SOCIETIES AND IMPROVED HORSE-SHOEING. 



Amongst the various secondary objects which Humane So- 

 cieties, the world over, propose to themselves to attain in order 

 to carry into effect their highest benevolent intentions towards 

 the inferior order of created beings, which are associated with, 

 or subject to, the service of mankind within the different spheres 

 of civilization, there is none I deem of more transcending im- 

 portance to the best interests of society, in subserving the noble 

 aims, greater and lesser, which those societies have in view, 

 and the well being of the quadruped under consideration, than 

 improved methods of shoeing horses, whether for the purpose of 

 preventing disease and lameness, or for removing or amelior- 

 ating those abnormal conditions when present. The full meas- 

 ure or complement of all that is possible in these directions, 

 ought to be accomplished. 



The writer of the following pages on pathological horse- 

 shoeing, deeply impressed with this view, as well as actuated 

 by a profound conviction of personal duty, earnestly desires to 

 enlist the active sympathies and assistance of the above socie- 

 ties in every civilized community on behalf of what he regards 

 as his mission of mercy to the victim of the most unaccount- 

 able ignorance of his necessities, in the management of one of 

 his most essential organs of usefulness ; yet, withal, an indis- 

 pensable and invaluable adjunct of civilization everywhere. 



About three. years since, the Scottish Society for the Preven- 

 tion of Cruelty to Animals, awarded prizes "for the best and 

 most practical essays on horse-shoeing, in connection with the 

 comfort and soundness of the horse." Upwards of forty essays 



B 



