OF USING HOUSES WITHOUT SHOES. 
691 
extent of his power without splitting the horn. Should my ex- 
ample be imitated in time, and without much injury having been 
inflicted by previous shoeing, with a very simple process of harden- 
ing, all other measures will be rendered unnecessary. 
In numerous cases where the injuries inflicted called for a re- 
medy more prompt and decisive, I have employed with marked 
success a shoe which I shall, with your permission, describe. 
The one-side nailing will go far to prevent the evil it must be 
our aim to resist; but in cases where contraction has made much 
progress, I fear the instances are but very few in which that plan 
would effect the recovery. I think I might venture, without pre- 
sumption, to predict that, with the aid of the undermentioned shoe, 
a cure might generally be ensured. 
About eighteen years ago it occurred to me that the late Mr. 
Coleman’s patent shoe with the clip might be turned to still better 
account. I at first put one or two joints to it at the quarters, 
thinking it would thus act better than at the toe, as Mr. Bracy 
Clark recommends. All I claimed for myself was the farther in- 
sertion of a moveable bar at the heel, which I lined with Indian 
rubber, and upon which I acted by means of two side screws, but 
further experience has induced me to omit the joints, and indeed 
the bar also. Instead of a permanent bar, I have had recourse to 
an instrument which is applied merely at the time of the operation, 
taking care to have the shoe nailed down as soon as I have ob- 
tained the degree of expansion one application will produce. I 
have now a screw which, from its length, projects about an inch 
on each side of the foot. At each extremity is a nut, attached to 
which I have a hook, the point of which enters each side of the 
heel. It must be evident that with the aid of the handle of the 
screw I have the animal’s foot under my power, so much so, as to 
have produced in a few minutes a degree of expansion hardly 
credible to those who have not seen it. 
3 i 3 2 
% p 
4 4 
1. The screw. 3. The nuts through which the screw acts. 
2 . The handle of the screw. 4. The hooks attached. 
About ten years ago I bought Mr. Goodwin’s work on shoeing, 
in which I perceived some improvement of the same description, 
the credit of which is given to Lord Bloomfield. I have since been 
informed a shoe of the kind had been long before in use by that 
“ prince of veterinarians,” Mr. Percivall, sen. Perhaps, indeed, 
the alterations which I have found of so much utility in my practice 
may have been employed by others who have not given publicity 
to their -discovery. Be that as it may, I beg to testify to the 
success I have derived from the use of the abovementioned shoe 
