134 farmers' ard mechanics' journal, 



real evil to the horse, it would be from the unnataral heat in the 

 foot, and the dryness and consequent contraction of the horn occa- 

 sioned by the absence of the dampness of the earth, the heat of the 

 litter, and the increased heat of the foot within. The greatest ob- 

 jection to this explanation is, that the contraction itself appears to 

 be but slightly connected with the above causes, for the horse's 

 hoofs, if he is kept shod, will contract nearly, or quite as fast, at 

 grass as in the stable. 



2. They then maintained that it probably arose from the frog's 

 not receiving pressure, and that the very object of the frog was to 

 prevent contraction by mechanical force. They shod the horse 

 with a shoe lower at the heel than the toe, and with artificial frogs ; 

 broke down multitudes ; found the hoof contract as much as be- 

 fore ; and have at last, 1 believe, discarded the practice without 

 reservation. 



3. A distinguished master of the subject then ascribed it, and 

 with vastly more appearance of reason, to shoeing the horse at all. 

 It certainly would appear to be a tremendous trial of Nature's 

 ability to accommodate herself to circumstances, to nail an iron 

 ring round a living and elastic organ ; and one, which as the wall 

 of the hoof grows at the coronet, and is intended to be proportion- 

 ably worn off by the earth, must be continually attempting to in- 

 crease in size. Horses were never shod by the Greeks and Ro-^ 

 mans, with any thing but leather, or with shoes, which were tied 

 on merely when the Ijorse was at work : and nailing on shoes is 

 still totally unknown in most parts of the world. The contraction 

 arising from this fixed ring, though it may not ever be the imme- 

 diately exciting cause of lameness, from the internal foot's in some 

 degree adapting itself to its diminished area, 1 myself believe to be 

 a great predisposer to it. That it cannot be the common cause, 

 is evident from the fact that horses are never lame in their hind 

 feet, be they ever so much contracted, and that the lameness itself 

 is as often to be found in hoofs that are not perceptibly contracted 

 at all, as in hoofs excessively contracted : which last fact I will de- 

 monstrate to any sceptical person, by examining the horses running 

 in the coaches of any road in Massachusetts. 1 wonder that the 

 very able defender of the theory of foot-lameness arising from the 

 modern system of shoeing, instead of explaining it by the crowding 

 of the sensible foot, did not perceive that its far most dangerous 

 action was, from the contracted area of the back part of the foot, 

 and the increased concavity of the sole's interfering with the action 

 of the very joint, the injury of which is now considered the most 

 frequent cause of this dreadful disease. 



4. They were finally compelled to own that contraction could 

 not be the common cause ; (so many horses being struck with it, 

 who had been never shod before, upon their being first put to 

 work, might have been conclusive evidence to the contrary.) and 

 have now generally supposed it to be a disease, which may afflict a 

 horse that is kept standing upon the earth all his life, and who is 

 never shod, provided he is exposed to sprains and concussion. At 

 •the back of the coffin-borrte, there is a small bone placed horizon^ 



