CONCLUDING OBSKRVATIONS. 101 



ease arising from wear and tear, such as ordinary 

 daily labour, is occasioned by rest. This disease is 

 engendered by confinement in the stable for twenty- 

 two hours out of every twenty-four, not from the 

 simple circumstance of their standing so long upon 

 clean straw beds, but from their being chained by 

 the head to a post in the stall for weeks and months 

 together : this stationary position operates mecha- 

 nically upon the hoof, and is the greatest act of 

 violence which we commonly offer to this organ. 

 Therefore, calculatinsr the few hours in a week that 

 these horses are usually occupied in quick motion, 

 it will be seen, that one of the principal advantageSjJ'Ip^'^.'jfj'l^"^^ 

 of the new method of shoeing over the old, is the Jd";°i![/e';.! 

 unfettering of the foot whilst the horse is tinem- whiisuhe horse 

 ployed, and which is of paramount importance, j^g "•""*'"'? '^^^^ • 

 it allows the foot to dilate in the stable, by the in- 

 fluence of the animal's own weight, after the man- 

 ner of an unshod foot. 



