196 
ON UODWAY/S PATENT SHOE. 
ing twenty pounds; which, added to the portions before removed, 
make a total of thirty pounds. The hog is now computed to 
weigh twenty score. He had not any medicine administered, as 
he did well the whole of the time. 
[Will some of our contributors throw a little light on this singular 
disease of the skin of the hog? It is not of frequent occurrence, 
but it deserves more attention than has been paid to it.— 
Editors.] 
ON RODWAY’S PATENT SHOE. 
By Mr. W. Reddall, F.S. 
Messrs. Editors, — I t is with mingled feelings of disappoint- 
ment and regret that I feel called on, by a sense of justice, to 
give publicity to my practical opinion, through the medium of your 
valuable periodical, relative to Rodway’s Patent Horseshoes. 
I did hope, from the principle of the shoe, and from the very 
flattering description given of it in the Circular issued by the 
patentee, that it would, in some measure, have been practically 
borne out, and that thus the foot of the generous horse would 
have become relieved of, at least, some of the evils which the 
patentee professed to cure by it; but after having given the shoes 
a fair trial — having used them in my forge for the space of from 
four to five months (during which time I have put on a great 
number of the patent shoes, many on horses of my own, ridden 
by myself, as well as on coach horses, hunters, cart-horses, and 
ponies), I am compelled to say that not one of the presumed 
benefits which were held out so sanguinely by Mr. Rodway be- 
came verified in practice ; but I have found that those very evils 
which the Patentee so speciously professes to obviate by the use 
of his shoes have been incurred by those even of his own manu- 
facture. I have seen corns produced in strong sound feet by the 
use of a single set of Mr. Rodway’s shoes, and have found them 
more insecure on the foot than the common shoes ; the nails 
frequently breaking in the neck, just as they emerge from the 
hoof, between the shoe and crust. This, I think, is to be ex- 
plained by the fact of there being only two narrow points of con- 
tact between the shoe and the ground, which are the two ridges, 
and which, of course, receive an equal degree of pressure. The 
inner rim being at a distance from the nails and clinches, the 
