576 SOME OBSERVATIONS ON SHOEING. 
mischief done by the indiscriminate use of this shoe. Nails 
driven in the French mode are apt to make sideway pressure 
against the sole, and often produce chronic disease of the laminae. 
And I myself have witnessed two or three instances where sink¬ 
ing of the coffin-bone was apparently the consequence of (perhaps 
immoderately) cutting away the hoof at the toe, in order to admit 
the curve of that part of the shoe. This method has therefore 
its objectionable points. 
The frog-bar shoe, brought forward by Mr. Coleman, has 
proved a complete failure as a shoe for general use. Frog 
pessure, so enthusiastically advocated by our ingenious Professor 
throughout a long life, has been found on various trials to be 
inapplicable in shoeing. We see the frog in the natural and 
unshod hoof resting upon the ground, and we thence infer it is 
destined to receive pressure; but if we fix a bar of iron over it, 
we find it will soon become diseased, and the animal will often 
go crippled or tender under this mode of shoeing. In this 
instance, as, indeed, in many others, we find that that which is 
right in theory may be wrong in practice. But although every 
attempt to render the frog-bar shoe available as a shoe for common 
use has turned out a wofu 1 failure, even in the hands of the Pro¬ 
fessor himself, yet, as a remedial means, its occasional application 
to contracted feet, &c. is often attended with great and decided 
benefit, as I myself can testify on many occasions, and should 
never be totally laid aside in veterinary practice. 
The frog pressure fever has now passed, and more recently my 
friend, Mr. James Turner, as fervently fancies he has discovered 
the ne plus ultra of shoeing in the one-side nailing. This method, 
of which he is the champion, certainly does possess a great 
advantage ; inasmuch as that, by leaving unfettered all the inner 
portion of the hoof, it offers no resistance or impediment to the 
lateral expansion of the heels, a great desideratum in shoeing; 
and no doubt it must be an excellent plan for a great number of 
feet—for such as have strong hoofs and a tendency to contraction. 
But it also has its objectionable points with regard to feet of 
another description. Many of those persons who have already 
given it a trial, seem to be very wide of Mr. Turner's opinion as 
to merits and perfections. And our friend may yet live long 
enough in the world to see the impossibility of making every¬ 
body think as he does, upon a matter which he considers at once 
so simple, so plain, and so apparent. 
There is no point, perhaps, upon which veterinary practitioners 
are so little agreed as upon shoeing. And I have touched upon 
these few main features of the subject, principally with a view 
to shew that wc ought neither to be prejudiced against any par- 
