HORSE-SHOEING SIMPLIFIED AND UNFETTERED. 67 



veterinary history, or as the epoch of the emancipa- 

 tion of the art of horse-shoeing from its most im- 

 portant objections. 



Shortly after the piibHcation in The Veteri- 

 narian of my expose on shoeing, I was assailed, in 

 no very measured terms, by the relatives of Mr. 

 Bracy Clark : to these zealous advocates of that 

 author I instantly replied, as most of you are aware. 



Having been called upon by them to avow from 

 whom I derived the knowledge of the principle of 

 elasticity or expansion of the foot of the horse, and 

 secondly as to the injurious effects of the continued 

 application of iron and nails, in impeding or re- 

 straining the natural expansion of the hoof, I 

 answer, that on both these points I derived my in- 

 formation from the same source which enlightened 

 Mr. Bracy Clark himself; viz. a work which is 

 sufficiently adopted to have become the common 

 property of us all, — I mean on the Mechanism of 

 the Horse's Foot, with its natural Spring ex- 

 plained, published by Strickland Freeman, ^*9'- p,!"^;'5,fj,f Jh"*^ 

 as long ago as 1796, several years previously to firs^j^^^^p^'^"der 

 Mr. Bracy Clark's first publication on the foot. '^Sl^L 

 It was Mr. Freeman, not Mr. Bracy Clark, [J^';f"'^* 

 who first explained these great truths, so as 

 to render them intelligible to others, as the follow- 

 ing extracts amply testify. However, as the last 

 September number of The Veterinarian contains 

 an impartial review, by its Editors, of the claims 



F 2 



