SHOEING. 423 



er's yard from this cause than all others combined. A healthy, 

 vigorous foot is the exception even among horses used for lighter 

 work. Brittle, shelly hoofs, ridged and dished, indicating internal 

 derangement, withered frogs with the centre arch or stay entirely 

 absorbed, high heels bound up by hard, unyielding crust, all these 

 deformities and many others are chargeable in some degree to bad 

 shoeing. Sometimes injuries are attributed to the blacksmith that 

 are due to accident or brutality of the driver, but in as far as our 

 .system of shoeing interferes with the natural functions of the foot, 

 it will induce disease. 



The question then presents itself, Why not teach the mechanic 

 the design of the structure, to the repair of which his lifetime is 

 devoted ? You may command him to treat your horse as you direct, 

 but you must convince his judgment, if you expect obedience at all 

 times j as well dictate to a physician what medicines he shall give 

 your child at some stages of disease, and depend on him at others; 

 he will treat the case in his own way, or not at all; the head, heart 

 and hand must accord to make perfect work. 



Our public schools have been a great power in the advancement 

 of the mechanical arts ; much of the labor-saving machinery now 

 building up great wealth in the country, is the fruit of the philo- 

 sophical truths there disseminated, and the improved sociul condi- 

 tion of the laboring classes is due to their influence. We have 

 schools of science, and colleges for the instruction of students in 

 the treatment and cure of horses, yet we expect those whose daily 

 business is to perform important surgical operations upon a deli- 

 cately organized member, to be reasonably successful, without 

 having learned the alphabet of their profession. There are among 

 them, individuals, intelligent and ingenious, who would be glad 

 of an opportunity of testing the validity of their practice by an 

 appeal to the condition of the hidden springs, levers, pulleys, 

 cushions, and powers comprising the mechanism of the feet and legs 

 explained by those who have made such their lifelong study. Many 

 of these have, by long experience, discovered for themselves a fair 

 system of shoeing, and are successful in the treatment and preven- 

 tion of injury, but, ignorant of physiology, are unable to transmit 

 their knowledge to others with sufficient reason to establish its 

 truth. 



To such fully educated to their profession, we must look for im- 

 provement in the art, and we hope that the day is not far distant 

 when America may be able to boast of her veterinary colleges and 

 schools for farriers, as of her other institutions of learning. 



A small proportion of the pecuniary loss annually sustained in 

 our large cities alone, would support such an institution, the good 

 results of which would be incalculable. But while all thinking 

 men admit the benefits which must result from its establishment, 



