830 ARMY FARRIERS AND SHOEING SMITHS. 
exaggeration, is incorrigibly presumptive and almost unable 
to read or write, he is an useful assistant under direction 
in administerial medicines and in operations. 
In compounding he is naturally careless, both in the 
preparation of the ingredients of a prescription, as well as in 
their subsequent admixture. His contractions and corrup- 
tions of the names of mediums are curious enough. 
Farrier No. 2 (like No. 1, a tradesman before enlisting) 
was promoted to the rank in 1868, or at the end of 1867. 
Two or three months after taking up his appointment he 
marched with his battery (no veterinary surgeon was available 
to take medical charge of the horses), and although he can- 
didly confessed his ignorance of everything concerning the 
pharmacy and infirmary, he was expected, as a matter of 
course, to comply with 7 and 8 paragraphs of Section X1Y 
previously quoted. Two days after the battery left a veteri- 
nary surgeon was ordered to overtake it. The farrier was 
much delighted, and afterwards observed, “ I don't know, 
sir, what I should have done by myself, for I knew nothing, 
not even what a physic-ball meant." 
His position was a very anomalous one, very false, and 
particularly unpleasant where every one was expected to know 
his duty thoroughly, and to do it accordingly. On joining, 
he imagined the horses stood and travelled too much on their 
toes, or vice versa (I forget which now), so he proceeded to 
remedy the defect by thickening the heels or the toes of the 
shoes, as the case might have been. He was soon taught to 
shoe according to regulation, or to any modification we 
desired, and is now a quick and good workman; but this 
extraordinary idea had been too tenderly nurtured to be given 
up at onec without a murmur. Could he have been taught 
thuswise the eight years he had served as a shoeing smith? 
It is even now (when these notes were penned), difficult 
to overthrow some of his prejudices respecting horses' feet, 
but having none to bias him in the hospital and pharmacy, 
he is much more tractable than No. 1 ; and as his education 
is better there is a tendency to pick up information from 
every available source, and to seek assistance by inquiry into 
that which he does not understand. Eventually he ought to 
be a reliable and useful assistant ; but how much more valua- 
able would he have been had his education and training been 
consistent with the duties that are required of him. 
Farrier No. 3 (tradesman before enlisting) may be a shade 
superior to No. 2. He has been in this grade for nearly 
fifteen years, and on this account fancies himself amazingly. 
His long experience, however, will not supply that which 
