•362 ON TURNER AND CLARK S SYSTEMS OF SHOEING. 
a discovery, in nearly Mr. Clark’s own words, which that gentle¬ 
man published in 1809. Mr. Turner’s words are these : “ If in 
this said old method of shoeing, somewhat modified, there is to 
be found the necessary defence for the foot, without the natural 
expansion of the hoof being impeded or restrained by the ring of 
non (Mr. Clark called it inflexible ring of iron) nailed thereon 
or, m other words, which will admit of all the functions of ,the 
foot being duly performed, I will venture to pronounce it the 
horseman’s grand desideratum.” Mr. Turner then proceeds to 
state the mode of obtaining “ the grand desideratum;” viz. by 
the miserable and insecure expedient of nailing a common shoe 
to “ one side” only of the foot, thereby allowing a partial expan¬ 
sion of the hoof. r 
Mr. Turner, by this admission, is evidently convinced of the 
truth of the doctrine of the expansion of the foot, as stated ori¬ 
ginally by Mr. Clark ; and that the College doctrine of pressure 
on the frog (“ the grand desideratum of Mr Coleman”) is wrong. 
If, therefore, he had recommended the expansion shoe, invented 
by Mr. Clark about eleven years ago, with which I have inva¬ 
riably had my horses shod during that time with the greatest 
advantage, it would have added to Mr. Turner’s reputation for 
candour and honour in the same proportion that his present pub¬ 
lication proves him to have been actuated by meanness and 
quackery. 
Mr Turner says, “ the great mistake in shoeing consists in 
the naihng an unyielding body of iron to both sides or quarters 
of the foot (so said Mr. Clark in 1809); when, in truth, there is 
a necessity for the one side only to be bound or hampered by this 
iron cage.” With Mr. Clark’s expansion shoe neither side is 
hampeied, but “ all the functions of the foot are duly per¬ 
formed and the shoe is as firmly fixed to the foot as in the old 
method of shoeing. Mr. Clark, in the commencement of his 
-Description of a New Horse Shoe which expands to the Foot,” 
published in 1820, has these words : “ Having published some 
time ago a treatise on the foot of the horse, and demonstrably 
proved that the evils and unnatural tenderness of the feet, espe¬ 
cially of the fore feet, arose from the common shoe embracing the 
foot too rigidly, and did not admit the play and expansion which 
is natural to it, and for which an obvious provision is made in 
the structure of the foot, and which expansion is necessary to 
preserve it in a sound and healthy state and in good order for use. 
“After a laborious, painful, and expensive conflict with the dif¬ 
ficulties of the case, during fifteen, or more nearly twenty years, 
it is with a feeling of much joy and satisfaction that I lay before 
the public this discovery, which I trust will be found an efficient 
