MR. HODWAY IN DEFENCE OF HIS PATENT SHOE. 201 
on the foot, becoming loose, nails lost, and breaking or losing 
altogether of the ordinary shoe. He asserts also, that horses have 
been seen to slip on stone or wood with my shoes “ much as 
others did in ordinary shoes.” I feel greatly indebted to him 
that they have not been seen to slip much more than others : 
did he however (wishing only for truth), ascertain the condition 
the shoes were in at the time 1 Because my shoe is a patented 
one, I have frequently found persons expecting it to perform 
almost miracles. It is expected by such persons never to wear 
out, or, at three weeks’ end, if almost worn as flat as a new com- 
mon shoe, it is nevertheless expected to be in full operation. The 
more it is worn, of course, the more it approximates to the com- 
mon one, and therefore the less it will prevent slipping. But 
while he admitted that on roads and turf in truth it would take 
a hold which a plane surface could not, did he not have the ge- 
nerosity that was an ornament to him in November last, and 
give again the testimony of so respectable and honest a practi- 
tioner as Mr. Henderson, veterinary surgeon to her Majesty the 
Queen Dowager, who fully established this fact, and has since 
then, for the good of horse proprietors, allowed me to use his name 
as being prepared by long experience to bear witness to the facts 
referred to ? Gratifying must it be to all who have approved of 
the concave shoe to see that, to the present moment, notone error 
of principle has been discovered, but that attempts of disapproba- 
tion have either in reality been objections to the material, inferior 
workmanship under their own superintendence, or absolute ig- 
norance of the subject: to reply to empty and frivolous assertions 
would be useless, though perhaps amusing. 
The adoption of even the slightest improvement in the horse- 
shoe is important to the public generally. If such an improvement 
does not exist in the concave shoe, let it be known. I feared from 
the first no open and public inquiry ; but now facts and absolute 
experience plead my cause. When my shoe and its many advan- 
tages to the trade are fully known, I feel assured every maker 
of horseshoes will see clearly his decided interest is to adopt it. 
The saving in expense has been partly told for me in November 
last; but there are advantages in the use of this shoe infinitely 
more important to the trade than even its superiority over the 
common one, or its great economy : these I am aware are not 
known to the writer to whom I reply, and were not intended by 
me to be made public, being entirely matter of business, and 
concerning only the makers of horseshoes. I have studiously 
avoided doing injury in any way to the trade; every thing T have 
published upon the subject has borne my name — the only system 
