REVIEW. 
329 
deal of doubt and incredulity. The vulgar notion is, that horn 
like vegetable matter, shoots from the surface, and, conse- 
quently, that to promote such growth, it is sufficient to anoint 
or irritate such surface: people in the ordinary way not 
dreaming of such a thing as secretion , or supposing for a 
minute that living horn, though nowise organised, has not 
the power of reproduction in itself. 
So far as the horn, to the exclusion of that which produces 
it, is concerned, we do not believe that anything tends more 
to foster and encourage its growth and well-doing than 
taking care to cover up and close the pores through which 
escape and evaporate its nutritive juices; nor do we believe 
that anything artificial tends more to accomplish this than 
the natural external layer of the horn itself, which the smith, 
in his officiousness, takes great care to remove in the process 
of shoeing, by way of adding neatness or finish to his job. 
Oil and oleaginous compounds may penetrate dead horn, 
and supple or soften it, but will living horn admit of its 
penetration ? will it not rather resist its influence ? and do 
not such unguents and pastes as are applied to the hoof 
rather produce their suppling effect by plugging up the pores 
of the horn, and so arresting the efflux of its natural juices, 
than by entering such pores or any interstices themselves ? 
Among the various nostrums recommended, with such 
names attached to them as Bourgelat, Bracy Clark, Vatel, 
Delafond, &c., our author informs us that there is no lack of 
such as impart suppleness to the hoof ; but that discovery has 
as yet introduced nothing to augment its density . 
Among the pharmaceutical means, M. Rey holds anything 
in little estimation which does not contain turpentine , this 
substance having leaucoup d’efficacite . We can understand 
how turpentine, from its known peculiar property of stimu- 
lating the skin, may and does excite secreting action, the 
same as ammonia, or any other stimulant would do ; but we 
question that its beneficial operation extends further than 
this. Here we shall now break off, on this subject at least, 
expressing nothing further than a wonder that M. Rey should 
have soiled really a scientific and useful treatise on shoeing 
