AN ADMIRABLE CONTRIVANCE. 35 



alliuled to would be rendered useless. It would then be like strikinir 

 with a hammer which had a spriiigy handle, the blow being more 

 acute, more stinging from the spring. But the most admirable con- 

 trivance of all to obviate the ill effects of the jar, arising from the 

 rapid concussion, is in the foot in its natural state. The opening paper 

 of this essay illustrated this, and the first cut explains how the spring 

 of the foot aids the elasticity of the frog in counteracting the diffi- 

 culty. At the risk of repetition it will be well to give this matter 

 the fullest consitleration, as, in my opinion, this is the most import- 

 ant matter to thoroughly study. All of the best veterinarians, and 

 a great majority of the wi'iters on the pathology of the horse's foot, 

 have recognized the impoi*tance of retaining iSiis safeguard, and have 

 recommended various plans of shoeing to obviate the difficulty of a 

 rigid band when nature intended there should be the fullest motion. 

 Ml". Miles, and many others, advise few nails being used, and 

 those, as much as j)ossible, driven near the toe; others, a shoe with a 

 joint at the toe, and another patented a shoe Avhicli was held in its 

 place by screws which clasped it to the outside of the wall. 



All of these have been guided by the belief that the post n-ior por- 

 tion of the foot must be protected by an iron rim, and though the 

 quotation from J. H. "Walsh, heretofore given, proves that he had a 

 faint idea that this protection might be dispensed with, he had not 

 faith enough in it to give it a trial himself, though he signified his 

 wish to see it brought more fully into use. By i-eturniug to the mat- 

 ter quoted from " Stonehenge," it will be seen that in some instances 

 he knew that shoeing with tips was successful, while he does not men- 

 tion one where there was a failure. Miles is afraid of the horse in- 

 jui-ing the sole and frog with a narrow shoe, from the facility with 

 which small stones could be introduced and bruise the exposed parts. 

 Mr. Miles would have seen ten times the danger in a tip, but in his 

 instructions to the smith he dii-ects the paring away of the sole and 

 the cutting away the bars until they are on a level with the excised 

 sole. Left with the pi-otection which nature has given them, there 

 would be little danger of the kind, and though a sharp-pointed flint 

 or stone might do injury, a still sharper one would injure, no matter 

 how wide the web of the shoe was made. 



