MISERABI.E LIFE, PREMATURE DEATH, 135 



coiintiy forges, where the process was liitherto unknown, have now 

 the necessary appliances, and the ownei"s are prepared to devote their 

 best abilities to the operation, I am emboldened to send you some 

 additional remarks, in hojies of furthering the good cause. 



It seems to me that the one thing needful to effect a complete 

 chano^e for the better in horse shoeins; all over Ena;land is that vete- 

 rinary surgeons should take and express gi-eater interest in tlie subject ; 

 that they should, in fact, disci'iminate openly and strongly between 

 good shoeing and bad, between shoeing which will probably enable a 

 hoi-se to remain sound in his feet to a good old age, and that which 

 may fairly be expected to render his life miserable and his death 

 premature. Few men can doubt that if veterinarians were generally 

 convinced of the truth of the Charlier system, and used their influence 

 to promote its adoption, a few yeare would see it introduced thi'ough- 

 out the length and breadth of the land. Tliat they do not do so is 

 not necessarily a reproach to them; there may be inconveniences 

 and dangers attendant on it, of which outsiders like mj'-self are ignor- 

 ant, but which are fully apparent to their more instructed minds. 

 What sm-prises me is that they should not give us a hint on the 

 subject. 



For many weeks you have set aside a large amount of your space 

 in order that horse-ownei-s might ventilate this question, and try to 

 arrive at some conclusion likely to benefit tlie most generous and 

 courageous of all animals; but not one single useful contribution 

 has emanated from a member of the veterinary^ profession. If it 

 were a question of bad water or bad smells, doctors would be found in 

 plenty to tell us what to do; but the sphinx was gaiTulity itself com- 

 pared to our veterina,rians. Surely they must thoroughly well know 

 whether the Charlier system is good or the reverse. From the fiict 

 that certain eminent members of the profession have written approv- 

 ingly of it, and from the eagerness with which one or two of your 

 correspondents, themselves veterinarians, have hailed its inventor as a 

 confrere, one would suppose they regarded it as entirely good ; 

 yet, can any horse-owner remember one of the rank and file of the 

 profession advising him to try if? I certainly cannot; and it is this 

 prejudice, indifference — call it what you will — on the part of so many 



