REMARKS ON MR. REEVE’S EXPERIMENTS. 
131 
publication of my experiments, and no opponent having come for- 
ward to refute them by others of a similar character, I was induced 
to believe that there was either a wonderful apathy in the vete- 
rinary profession to a subject which one would naturally consider 
to be of great importance, or else, that my experiments had been 
tested and found correct. 1 know fully how difficult is the position 
I hold, and how hard it is to overcome long-established opinions; 
but I have not hazarded statements or deduced inferences from 
experiments without due consideration. And there is one thing 
certain, that, if my experiments were correct, which I conscien- 
tiously believe they all were, sooner or later public opinion will 
be in my favour ; 1 therefore sincerely trust many of the pro- 
fession will put both Mr. Reeve’s experiments and mine to the 
fullest and most impartial trial. Surely, it is time that we should 
be able positively to declare what is the true action of the foot of 
the horse. Can any improvements in shoeing be based on a 
solid foundation until we agree upon first principles? Let the 
matter, then, be set at rest by investigation. It surely would not be 
time misapplied, if the talented teachers of the London and Edin- 
burgh schools were to institute an inquiry into it. As to myself, 
personally, it matters little. I shall have done good by the agi- 
tation of the question, whatever the issue I must confess that 
the results arrived at by Mr. Reeve rather staggered me, and I 
saw at once what a peculiar advantage he had over me ; inasmuch 
as he could apply active exertion whilst the experimental shoes 
were on the feet, whilst I had not this advantage with my experi- 
ments by wax; and I have no little pleasure, therefore, after sub- 
mitting Mr. Reeve’s plan to trial, to consider myself fully justified 
in maintaining my first opinion, and that these experiments, per- 
formed after the same manner as his own, prove the truth of my 
previous trials. 
For the purpose of answering Mr. Reeve, I must beg the reader 
to take the last Number of The VETERINARIAN, and follow me 
through his paper, which I shall now consider. 
Page 62, last paragraph. — Mr. Reeve represents me to say, 
“ that in a horse in a state of nature, or shod with the heels sprung, 
a certain action of the foot goes on in addition (to the downward 
and backward action described ), namely, a slight declination of the 
whole hoof in the direction of its fibres, thus allowing the heels 
and base of the frog to descend, which I consider to be the nat ural 
action of the foot, and that by shoeing we prevent this natural 
downward and backward action.” The last part of this paragraph 
is indeed my real and fixed opinion, and experience only confirms 
me in it ; but Mr. Reeve has added the words which are in paren- 
thesis, and here in italics, therefore making my statement erro- 
