AN ESSAY ON SHOEING. 
249 
country and large posting town, and lastly in this metropolis, I 
flatter myself that all sorts of improvements, real or imaginary, 
as they have arisen from their inventors in town or country, have, 
early or late, crossed my path. 
Plodding and mechanical as this subject may seem to the casual 
observer, it is, in truth, invested with a something peculiarly ex- 
citing in the mind’s eye of a real horseman. Many times and oft 
have I seen first-rate intellects assiduously tax their ingenuity to 
the utmost stretch ; yet they have been compelled to abandon 
their object, always at the upshot discovering the wear and tear 
to be incompatible with any complexity of the iron shield. 
Although veterinary writers, ancient and modern, of one accord 
have declared it a thing impossible to invent a shoe to be suitable 
for all kinds of feet, nevertheless it occurred to me, some time 
ago, that an important desideratum would be that description of 
horseshoe which combined within itself the greatest possible 
amount of the several excellencies of other shoes, and, therefore, 
I determined on doing my best in making an approach to it. 
After many repeated changes, and every variety of experiment, 
at length I became enamoured of one particular form beyond 
others, proved it by all the known tests, and now propose to de- 
signate it the unilateral conservative shoe for the gene- 
rality of feet, at every description of work, hunting, coaching, 
the road, and town, but especially designed to obviate slipping 
upon wood pavement. And I avail myself of this opportunity of 
inviting veterinary surgeons of Her Majesty’s cavalry, and also of 
the Honourable East India Company’s service, to put my shoe to 
the severest possible tests of military discipline which they can 
devise. 
We are in the habit of regarding the horse-shoeing of our fore- 
fathers as rude and unscientific ; but it is due to the old school to 
observe, that one or two of our great leading principles were theirs. 
The seated shoe of the present day is, at least, a century old : 
vide Osmer. This at once shews that the ancients were familiar 
with that important function of the foot in quick motion, the de- 
scent of the sole , and for which, in the concave surface opposite 
the sole, they made ample provision ; not being contented with 
avoiding actual contact between the shoe and the sole, but exca- 
vating from the shoe the space for a pecker; and, unquestion- 
ably, momentary extension of the elastic fibres of the hoof fre- 
quently occurs, when, if the shoe only merely cleared the sole 
without this chambering , lameness, temporary or permanent, 
would result. I regard this, viz. the support of the shoe by the 
crust, as the first great principle in shoeing applicable and indis- 
pensable to every description of foot — the avoidance of wounding 
vol. xvi. l 1 
