CONCLUDING OBSEKVATIONS. 93 



which might appear, at first view, merely spHtting 

 of hairs. But when I connect it with the general 

 method of shoeing horses, by naihng both sides of 

 the foot, I cannot divest myself of the idea, that this 

 is one of Mr. Coleman's greatest mistakes in his 

 writinsrs and lectures on the foot of the horse ; I 

 mean his denial of the descent of the toe or front 

 of the coffin hone, as commensurate with the heels of 

 that bone. 



The fact is briefly this, — that Mr. Coleman's 

 own method of shoeing, or that of any other practi- 

 tioner in town or country who secures the shoe to 

 the foot by nailing both quarters or sides of the 

 hoof, instantly curtails the whole elastic apparatus 

 as regards its function ; and the fettered organ under 

 this deprivation exhibits a most curious representa- 

 tion of the limited expansion which the Professor 

 has for so many years inculcated as being the na- 

 tural motion of an unshod perfect foot. 



Mr. Coleman, vol. i, page 27 , also observes, " that 

 when the laminated substances elongate, the horny 

 sole at the heels descends." And at page 104, 

 " that one of the uses of the horny sole is to act as 

 a spring, by descending at the heels.'' It appears The expansive 



1 * . 1 ^ n IP principle taken 



to me, that, in a good sound unlettered toot, on too limited 



. , a scale by Mr. 



it descends equally at the toe and sides as at its Coieman. 

 heels ; and that it acts as a more important spring 

 at the front and sides under the impression of weight 

 and force,, inasmuch as it describes a larger space, 



