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REVIEW— THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
ransacked in search of novelty, that, in the farrier’s art at least, 
but little or nothing appears left for future explorators : indeed, 
when we come to compare even the present “ improved” practice 
of shoeing with what was either in vogue among or known to our 
ancestors, we find we of the present age have but little to boast 
of in the province of discovery; and this is the reason why the 
old works on shoeing are held, and deservedly so, in such high 
estimation at the present day. 
The work now before us holds a sort of middle place between 
the production of an amateur and that of a veterinarian. Mr. 
Miles has stripped the foot of its outer covering to examine the 
organic and sensitive structures within, of some of which he has 
given short descriptions : he speaks -of “ the sensitive covering” of 
the coffin bone, of the “ sensitive sole and frog,” of the “ coronary 
substance,” of the “cartilages,” of “secreting membrane,” and 
of “ bloodvessels,” “ nerves,” &c., which is more than amateur 
writers in general do, and more perhaps than Mr. Miles would 
have attempted, had he not been — as we believe he is — a medical 
amateur veterinary writer. Under these circumstances, and briefly 
as the several subjects included under “ the Horse’s Foot” are 
treated, it would be hardly fair for us to enter upon a veterinary 
critique of the work : we shall, therefore, content ourselves with 
noticing a few of its striking or prominent features. 
Mr. Miles commences his Preface with informing us that he 
undertook the present work “ at the solicitation of several friends,” 
who deplored to him “ their total want of any thing like useful or 
practical knowledge upon the subject of shoeing /” This is casting 
a strange reflection upon veterinary writers on the foot. Surely 
these gentlemen never heard of the works of Coleman, Goodwin, 
and Bracy Clark — to say nothing of the old authors, and of such 
modern ones as have embodied their observations on the foot and 
shoeing with other matters. What Mr. Miles means by “un- 
tiring perseverance in one unwearied plan for a series of years' 9 
(Preface, p. iv) we scarcely divine, unless it be that the present 
general system of shoeing is but little varied, and has been but 
triflingly so for many years past ; and for the best of reasons — 
because, under all the circumstances, it has been proved to be the 
one which practically answers the best; nor have we found in 
Mr. Miles’ work any thing to induce us to alter it. 
Mr. Miles, in a true philosophical spirit, denounces the pre- 
sumption of man in interfering with the hoof of the colt before the 
time has arrived for his being shod: — 
“ It should surely be our object to retain these valuable qualities 
as long as we can, and not lightly sacrifice either of them to a false 
notion of a prettier form. Whenever we observe Nature steadily 
