PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 87 
Meyer states that the walls of the hoof are stronger when 
most obliquely disposed, and the hoof is largest ; vice versa , the 
smaller the hoof and the more upright its walls, the thinner 
and weaker it is. 
In conformity with the false idea exposed at the beginning, 
in shoeing the hind feet in Germany, the nails were far 
between, and coarsest at the heels. Pricks were the conse- 
quences, and Meyer’s attention was therefore specially drawn 
to the subject. Meyer recommends a space of about two 
inches in a middle-sized horse to be left free from nails at the 
toe, this being the principal wearing part, the heels being 
raised by calkins. On the inner and outer side of the toe 
the nails must be the coarsest, and more finely placed at the 
quarters and heels, leaving the posterior third of the crust on 
each side free from nails. The toe nails, therefore, must 
be driven coarser and higher than those at the quarters. — 
Rep. der Thierhiel ., Stuttgart, April, 1855. 
Respecting the relative thickness of the fore and hind feet, 
Rey* asserts that the wall is thickest and more upright in 
the hind than in the fore feet. 
Meyer differs from Rey, as may be seen above. 
We always thought that the toe was the thickest part of 
any foot, and the outer quarter next in thickness. That the 
inner heel and quarter of a foot are thinner than the outer is 
the opinion of all except Mr. Meyer, and the direction of the 
crust inside is generally more vertical than on the outer aspect 
of the foot. I have a hoof before me now, in which, on feel- 
ing for the the thinnest part of the wall, without looking at 
it, I readily determined on the one side, which turned out to 
be the inner one when examined, so that I was not biassed 
in my observation ; but further and more accurate researches 
may profitably be undertaken on this subject. Bouley* 
says, 66 generally , the wall on the inner side is thinner than at 
the external quarter.” Bouley’s expression (i generally,” 
which I have underlined, seems to me to imply that under 
some circumstances such is not the case. I am well aware, like 
every other practical veterinarian, what a farrier would answer 
if the question were put to him, but that is no proof to 
stand up against Mr. Meyer’s assertions of fact from direct 
observation. 
In analysing Mr. Meyer's remarks on nailing, a partial view 
of the subject is not to be taken ; but having had the oppor- 
tunities to see' the practice of different countries, we must 
point out the real state of the question that Meyer’s teaching 
* ‘Traite de Marechallerie Veterinaire/ Lyon, 1852. 
f * Traite de ^Organisation du Pied du Cheval/ Paris, 1851. 
