THE VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
347 
acquainted with all its transactions. If our inquiries have not 
been satisfactory to ourselves, and the result may not be so to 
our readers, the fault rests not with us. 
Messrs. W. Pontifex and Son were subscribers to the Veteri¬ 
nary College. One of their horses was sent to be shod there. 
Nothing unusual was perceived when he was brought out of the 
College; but, on going a journey, he had not travelled many 
miles before he was lame behind. The lameness increased, and 
the horse fell, and was severely injured. A country practitioner, 
on taking off the shoe, attributed the lameness and the fall to 
what he called infamous shoeing. A practitioner in town was 
afterwards consulted, who gave the same opinion; and Messrs. 
Pontifex demanded compensation for the injury and consequent 
expenses. Mr. Coleman, acting under the direction of the gover¬ 
nors, resisted the claim; and in consequence of this resistance 
the notice of action was withdrawn. 
We have seen the shoes. The workmanship was rude and un¬ 
finished to a degree that ought not to have existed in a public 
institution; but the principal ground of complaint, so far as we 
could understand it, was, that on the inside of the lame foot the 
nail-holes were most irregularly and improperly punched. The 
first nail-hole, on the foot side of the shoe, was twice as near the 
inner as the outer edge, and the others were, as nearly as possible, 
in the centre ; so that it seemed difficult to drive the nails with¬ 
out pressing on the lamina?, or even puncturing the sole. The 
reason for this manner of punching we cannot divine. We are 
inclined to think that it must have been the effect of carelessness, 
and inexcuseable carelessness too. Yet we cannot bring ourselves to 
believe that there was just ground for action. The horse was not 
lame when he went from the College ; he became lame on the 
road, possibly—probably, but not necessarily, from this strangely 
constructed shoe. He fell. He was not likely to fall because he 
was lame behind; at least, there was no necessary connexion 
here between cause and effect. The fall was possibly, probably, 
accidental. 
Asa private practitioner Mr. Coleman would have been justi¬ 
fied in resisting an action brought on such grounds, and would 
