RODWAY’S PATENT HORSESHOE. 
153 
As was stated by us on a former occasion*, Mr. Rodway's 
patented horse-shoe differs from the shoe in ordinary use only 
in having a wide and deep excavation, groove, or “ concavity/’ 
upon its ground-surface — a sort of extension or dilatation of the 
fullering of the common shoe from the outer to the inner border 
of the web ; and this constitutes the alteration, the effects of which 
it is our present business to investigate, both in respect to the 
application of the shoe to the foot, and to the good or harm the 
horse derives from the wear of it. 
By so much weight of iron as it would take to fill up the ex- 
cavation in Rodway’s shoe and convert it into a plain shoe is 
the former lighter than the latter. In ordinary shoeing — in 
hackneys, hunters, and light harness -horses — this diminished 
weight will run about three ounces per shoe, making, in the, set 
of shoes, three-quarters of a pound less in the weight the horse 
will have to carry upon his feet. No person would think of 
questioning the advantages accruing to the animal through a 
long journey, or in speed, from this subtracted load upon his 
feet. Do we not, in plating race-horses, pursue this principle 
of subtraction ? But every reflecting veterinarian and farrier 
would feel it his duty to inquire whether this diminution in the 
weight and substance of the shoe for ordinary use could be made 
without detracting from its utility, or converting it into an in- 
strument positively injurious. In the instance of the shoe before 
us we shall, unfortunately for our good servant, the horse, find 
that we are unable to avail ourselves of its great advantage of 
lightness, not merely on account of the shoe being by the exca- 
vation rendered less durable, but from its being thereby rendered 
on too many occasions positively mischievous in its operation. 
In situations where horses work hard and “ wear hard,” Rod- 
way’s shoe has been found to be seriously defective in durability. 
For every two sets of ordinary shoes, three sets of Rodway’s will 
be required ; and this, to many persons, would of itself consti- 
tute an insurmountable objection to them : at least might do 
so, were they not informed that the three sets would not pro- 
bably cost them more than the two of ordinary shoes, owing to 
the prepared (grooved) bars of iron which Mr. Rodway can 
supply forges with at little, if any, above the expense of common 
bars, as well as in consequence of the little comparative labour 
and workmanship required in the manufacture of the patent shoes. 
What renders Rodway’s less durable than other shoes is, not 
only the circumstance of the rims having to take all the wear, 
and becoming soon worn down, but also the want of that ham- 
mering, and consequent hardening, which ordinary horseshoes 
* In The Veterinarian for November 1842. 
VOL. XVI. 
X 
