THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XIV, No. 165.] SEPTEMBER 1841. [New Series, No. 105 
ON THE UNILATERAL OR THREE-QUARTERED 
SHOE. 
By E. Gabriel, Esq., M.R.C.S. et F.S , London . 
THE most valuable improvement that has been made in the art 
of shoeing in modern times is most undoubtedly that of unilateral 
nailing, introduced by James Turner. The principle of the thing 
is good, the practice is good, and, as a matter of course, the 
result is most valuable. The principle, however, has not yet 
been carried out to its full extent, and the object of this paper is 
to shew the great desirability that it should be, the great facility 
with which it can be done, and the important advantages to be 
derived therefrom. 
I often have been, and I am by no means sure that I am not 
at this moment, doubtful whether it is of any consequence at all 
as to the manner in which horses are shod. I have seen every 
contradiction of principle so elaborately worked out, every means 
which human stupidity could adopt to lame animals so sedulously 
adopted, every care so magnanimously disregarded, and every 
carelessness of detail and unfinished coarseness of workmanship 
so recklessly acted on, and all this too backed up by the horses 
themselves, as shewn by their working soundly during the entire 
periods of their existence, that I could with all my heart sit 
down and exclaim, in the style of old Bardolph, “ A fig for your 
improvements.” 
In sober seriousness, however, the fact is so, both, be it re- 
membered, in town and country; and I am perfectly satisfied 
that two-thirds of the horses now in work are shod with the most 
utter disregard to principle and indifference to workmanship that 
the veriest anti-diffusionist of knowledge could desire. True, 
there are plenty of cripples, rather a strong minority perhaps, as 
they would say in the house; but still they are a minority, and 
when we come to deduct from them, as l strongly suspect we 
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