200 MR. ROD WAY IN DEFENCE OF IJ IS PATENT SHOE. 
flat surface, which may receive also more manipulation; but any 
one seeking only for the fact will find every objection yet made, 
with the appearance of truth, has been indifferent material, so 
easily improved and already done. The reduced amount of fric- 
tions also, to which the shoe is exposed, is a powerful agent in 
giving durability ; for the writer must admit the destroyer of the 
common shoe is friction, and the more that is avoided the more 
durability is gained. Will he again tell horse proprietors that 
veterinary surgeons attend so little (though so important) to the 
forge, as not to have the will or power of having a shoe manu- 
factured to their own wish, or even hardened? I might say 
much upon this subject, but will only ask if the inference drawn 
from this may not cause the owners of valuable horses to ask 
themselves the question, if, in other forges also such orders cannot 
be obeyed, of what avail is an order to spare the knife, the but- 
teris, the hammer, the nail, or the stick ? Is this the admission 
of the proprietor of a shoeing establishment, attending to his duty 
as a master? My shoe, says the writer, will “ bend :” if properly 
made it cannot, if badly made it may, and so may any other ; 
will “ get down upon the sole of the foot of course, he means by 
the weight of the horse upon it. Is not the sole, then, above the 
shoe? Allow me to inquire (if such a circumstance should occur 
with mine or any other shoe) how the shoe can get down to a sur- 
face above it? or does the writer mean it will 66 get down” to 
some foot at our antipodes? It is also said my shoe is “ inca- 
pable of resisting the expansive action of the crust.” Supposing 
the workman (for this, as most of his objections, is a point of 
workmanship, not principle) chose it to be so, according to the uni- 
lateral principle this would be an important advantage. Some of 
my shoes, he also asserts, have broken— a possible case certainly ; 
but permit me to learn from him if in every forge in the kingdom 
(except his) the common shoe is not to be found broken, bent, and 
nail-holes bilged ? Allow me also to learn his real motive for 
persisting in misrepresenting my shoe as well as prospectus. If 
he really thinks the nails are to be passed through the middle of 
the web, which certainly is the thinnest part, in addition to his 
many extraordinary opinions, this will, I feel assured, account for 
my shoe having received no equitable trial under his care. In the 
proper place for the nails will be found sufficient strength to receive 
and retain them. I might with the same degree of justice hold 
up for condemnation the common shoe, because I thought proper 
to drive all the nails through the points of the heels. The author 
admits in my shoe the nails only occasionally receive blows and 
friction, which in the common one they are always receiving ; and 
therefore the frequent complaints of starting of clinches, moving 
