EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
233 
I must conclude with the hope that what has been written may 
in some slight degree tend to the improvement of the breed, 
the comfort, and the management of the noblest of domesticated 
animals ; believing that these ends may be accomplished, not only 
without any pecuniary sacrifice, but with decided advantage to 
the agricultural community. 
THE VETERINARIAN, APRIL 1, 1850. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
Differences and varieties in the shapes of horses’ feet, as well 
as in the forms of their bodies, have naturally attracted the atten- 
tion of those who have devoted their minds to the observation and 
study of animals from the earliest periods of time ; but we are not 
sure that such differences and varieties of figure have been by any 
writer compared or contrasted, or that one has been pointed out 
to be attendant or consequent upon the other. To Mr. Hodgson, 
we believe, we are indebted for supplying this interesting link in 
physiological connexion between body and foot ; and the concate- 
nation is one not less curious than it is inviting to the veterinary 
philosopher. We all know that colts bred or reared in certain 
countries or pastures are apt to have feet of a certain kind, and 
that breed as well as situation has an influence in this way ; but 
it has not, to our knowledge, been noticed that conformation of body 
denotes a certain contour of hoof; in other words, that what we 
call the spread or shelving of the hoof is regulated by the turning 
in or out of the toes, and the action resulting from such position or 
structure of fore limb. 
Bracy Clark has very naturally represented the spread upon the 
outer quarter — in his frontispiece of the Natural Foot of the Horse, 
in his “ Hippodonomia ” — and has found fault with Coleman and 
others for calling this part of the foot circular or round. 
Goodwin aptly observes, in his “ New System of Shoeing,” that, 
“ to take the form of the foot correctly, we must strip it of its exu- 
berant or superfluous parts, the same as one would pare the super- 
abundant growth off our own nails.” And that “ the neglect of 
VOL. XXIII. I i 
