2o 
CRIMEAN REMINISCENCES.— MODES OF SHOE- 
ING.— INJURIES TO THE BACK AND LOINS.— 
OPERATION UNDER CHLOROFORM. 
By “ Poulain.” 
Messrs. Editors, — Presuming on the practical excel- 
lence of your valuable Journal, I trust that, in the absence 
of more worthy matter, the insertion of a few remarks on 
Crimean practice will not be unacceptable to at least a few 
of your readers. 
The treatment of the hoof, as illustrated in the various 
methods of shoeing which were adopted and practised during 
the contingency of the late war, w r as the first subject which, 
from the principles involved, engaged my attention ; and 
may to some be an unnecessary revival of notions often dis- 
cussed ; but as they were novel to me, I doubt not profitable, 
ideas may start even from the ashes of facts remembered only 
as histories, when our art, in its infancy, struggled against 
theories unsupported by science, but which are now happily 
extinct, or at least their remains are entombed in the grave 
of oblivion, only to be brought to the surface by empirical 
resurrectionists. 
The results of the various methods of preparing and shoeing 
the foot so strikingly exemplified the superiority of our own 
mode over every other, as to leave no doubt in my mind as 
to the merits of English shoeing and English farriers; desi- 
derata which were only obtained at a late period of the work- 
ing existence of the Land Transport Corps in the Crimea. 
This want, which entailed such extra and arduous duty 
upon the veterinary surgeon, was at length supplied ; and 
the results that followed were truly wonderful, lameness de- 
creasing almost 80 per cent. 
The Turkish mode of shoeing, at one time the most acces- 
sible, and really the most objectionable, it is not my intention 
to enter minutely into, but only briefly to point out the 
demerits and disadvantages, of which there was so much 
cause to complain. 
The shoes, or plates, are of varied size and shape, according 
to the proportions and peculiarities of the foot to which they 
are to be applied ; the principle of construction being in all 
cases the same, namely, a flat piece of iron, pear-shaped, heel 
turned upwards and backwards, effecting pressure on the 
frog and heels, the edges being serrated, ostensibly for giving 
security to the footing, and some have a central circular space 
xxx. 4 
