REVIEW. 
76 
may be matter of regret to us and loss to our readers, we 
can console both them and ourselves by remarking, that the 
papers which we select from the volume before us, though, like 
good port wine, they may not improve by being kept on hand, 
yet are of that character which, within any reasonable period, 
will prove as acceptable as though they had actually appeared 
in print the day after their being read to the Central Society of 
Veterinary Medicine in Paris : in proof whereof we now sub- 
mit abrtges from a “ Memoir” 
On Fitting Horseshoes Hot, as compared with COLD Shoeing ; 
including some Researches into the Nature of the Hoof. 
Before we commence our extracts, however, it will be neces- 
sary to prepare the mind of our reader by observing, that one 
part of the subject on which the paper treats has already had 
attention given to it in our pages, and that this, added to what 
we are now about to transcribe further, is really more than, to 
us, it is deserving of; since, although hot shoeing has had some 
enemies in our country, we know of but few advocates for the 
cold plan. M. Delafond, the author of the paper before us, 
concurs with the Committee in the rejection of the podometre or 
foot-measurer, the invention of M. Riquet, and proceeds to in- 
quire if there exist any serious or real objections to fitting shoes 
hot to the feet. 
Fitting shoes hot — hot shoeing, as it may be called — is said 
to heat or burn the sole, to dry the hoof, to incline its fibres to 
separate, to incite inflammation in the internal tissues of the 
foot, and to produce organic alterations in them of a grave and 
hardly remediable character. It was not until the middle of the 
eighteenth century that hot shoeing came into practice, and the 
first author we find complaining about it is Lafosse, who, in his 
“ Nouvelle Pratique de Ferrer les Chevaux,” 3d edit., pub- 
lished in 1758, has spoken of such accidents under the names of 
heated and burnt hoofs. And his son (Lafosse, jun.) has well 
described them in his “ Guide du Marechal,” and subsequent 
works. 
If burning the hoof is an evil consequent on hot shoeing, is it 
a frequent occurrence 1 The Committee and M. Reynal have 
already come to the conclusion that it is not, and I am quite of 
their opinion. In order, however, to assure myself further than 
the mere on dit or practice of the forge on this point, I resolved 
