66 
EXPERIMENTS ON THE FOOT OF THE HORSE. 
drilled and tapped, and finely pointed stout wire pins, the eighth 
of an inch in diameter, adapted to screw into them. 
Having the shoe thus prepared, and the pins ready for use, the 
foot, which had been stopped during the night, was thus prepared 
for its reception : — First, by having the lower surface of the crust 
made perfectly level, from toe to heel. The sole was then cleaned, 
not by being pared , as is usual when the horse is shod, lest such 
an operation should militate against the experiment, but simply 
the crumbling particles of the horn were removed, until a smooth 
surface was produced. The shoe was then nailed to the foot, great 
pains being taken to have the nails well drawn up. All being now 
in readiness, each pin (the end having been besmeared with tar) 
was separately screwed into its hole, with the point towards the 
sole, until the closest approximation, without actual contact, was 
attained. The other end was then cut off, and filed down level 
with the shoe. This was successively done with each of the pins, 
until the whole nine had been inserted. I had now an inverted 
harrow beneath the foot of the horse, and so immoveably fixed 
there, that, should the slightest descent of the sole take place, the 
points would perforate it, and not only shew that there was a 
descent, but actually register the exact amount upon each pin. 
The horse then stood, and afterwards took a few steps in the 
forge, when the foot was examined ; but no visible descent could 
be detected. 
The horse was next, for a short time, put through the trot and 
canter, and brought in for examination. There was now no doubt 
about the matter. Each pin (though exactly at the same distance 
from the surface of the sole as when put in) had made its perfora- 
tion : there were nine visible punctures. The sole had, during 
action, descended and receded. 
The shoe being now taken off, and the pins examined, those at 
the side of the body, and those at the side of the point of the frog, 
shewed a descent of nearly the eighth of an inch ! whilst those 
across the toe and those near the angles of the heels might have 
registered a little more than a sixteenth. This experiment was 
witnessed by several gentlemen of experience, who, together with 
myself, felt fully convinced of its value by the result. 
Experiment II. — A common seated shoe was made, with the 
cover of the outside so extended in breadth as to project beyond 
the crust to the extent of half an inch, forming, when the shoe was 
placed upon the foot, a projecting ledge extending from the toe to 
the heel. Around the edge of this projecting side, a stout rim of 
iron, so strong as to be inflexible, was brazed. In length, this rim 
equalled, of course, the side of the shoe ; in depth it was about an 
inch, and in thickness nearly a quarter of an inch. 
