THE ' NO CONTRACTION" AND 

 "NON-EXPANSION" HERESIES. 



* ♦ » 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 



Having gained a perception of the facts and inductive truths 

 of the anatomy and physiology of the equine foot, we shall be 

 prepared to enter upon the consideration of the pathology and 

 therapeutics — in other words, the diseases that affect that organ 

 and their remedies. With such a preparation, the task is an 

 easy one ; but, before I address myself immediately to this task, 

 I feel there is no escape from the performance of a duty which 

 the position I occupy as a teacher has imposed upon me, 

 namely, that of encountering and doing battle with a couple of 

 twin heresies, whose only success has been in disturbing the 

 peace of the profession, such as it was, without in anywise sub- 

 stituting a more solid basis for its repose than it previously pos- 

 sessed. If these no contraction and non-expansion heresies were 

 merely speculative in their character, their adoption or rejec- 

 tion would be of little moment. It will be shown, however, 

 that a long catalogue of calamitous consequences is, and must 

 be, the inevitable consequence of the adoption of these perni- 

 cious errors. While sitting at the feet of our modern Gama- 

 liels, it was my duty to listen respectfully to their teachings. 

 So I did, and armed to the teeth with the theories I am now 

 called upon to combat, I went forth into the world to do bat- 

 tle with problems of life and death, and soon found myself but 

 poorly equipped for the occasion, after all ; for no amount of 

 plausible theory could extinguish the light of one simple fact 



