248 
AN ESSAY ON SHOEING. 
was a pavement of great promise of durability, and one whose 
cost, though above that of any of the ordinary floorings, was 
not so excessive as to preclude persons taking a pride in their 
stables from adopting it. 
AN ESSAY ON SHOEING. 
Read by Mr. James Turn er, of Regent-street , at the Meeting 
of the Veterinary Medical Association , on Dec. 13, 1842. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen, 
A very able paper on the Principles and Practice of Shoeing 
having been read before this Association by Mr. James Rowe so 
recently as the summer of the present year, and its merits having 
caused much valuable information to be elicited upon this very 
important subject in the course of an adjourned debate, I present 
myself at this time before you upon Horse Shoeing with much 
diffidence, and more particularly as I do not pretend to have come 
arrayed in any of the charms of novelty. The inducement to me 
for renewing this subject is the advantage likely to accrue to the 
profession at large by provoking further discussion within the 
walls of the National Institution, by which, in all probability, we 
shall be favoured with the opinions of the professors themselves, 
as to what are deemed by them palpable and practical improve- 
ments in the shoeing of horses which may have been brought 
usefully to bear in the best forges of this metropolis during the 
last ten or twelve years. But if science has extended everywhere 
except to the foot of the horse, and that no new and great prin- 
ciples have been brought beneficially and practically to bear in the 
carrying out of this most useful, indispensable, and in these king- 
doms universal art, then I doubt not but that those able gentle- 
men will fearlessly say so, and not shrink from their duty. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen, I beg further to suggest, in 
order that we may concentrate as much as possible the time and 
attention of the meeting, that the discussion be limited to the 
subject of practical shoeing as it relates to the general preserva- 
tion of the feet of horses engaged in active work upon the road, 
field, or pavements. 
Shoes in variety for diseased feet, or for those of peculiar con- 
formation, may form an ample and highly interesting subject for 
some future evening. Having served several apprenticeships in 
the shoeing of horses, commencing at the age of eighteen in the 
capacity of veterinary surgeon in the army, then in a hunting 
