128 ON THE EXPANSION OF THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
fairly tried on a horse going rapidly along the road ! This is 
truly an ingenious subterfuge, and a happy method of throwing a 
stumbling-block in the way of a simple and easy experiment. 
Your correspondent, indeed, seems to think that none but him¬ 
self and his connexions have any right to try such experiments. 
Yet I have the ‘‘ effrontery” to maintain, that the transcendent 
abilities of Mr. Bracy Clark, aided by my lord Morton’s acumen, 
are not required for the accurate measurement of a horse’s foot 
with calipers on or off the ground, with weight on his back or 
without it, in order to ascertain if any difference of width takes 
place under these different circumstances. Fortunately, I have at 
the momenta mare under my hands, got by Smolensko, whose fore 
feet are as fully developed as they can be, and have never felt 
the iron prison and wedges.” Here was a fair opportunity of 
ascertaining the effects of the momentum of speedy action. I 
accordingly availed myself of it, and repeatedly measured both 
the foot when held up in the hand and “ collapsed,” and the im¬ 
pression of it made on the soft ground when the animal was go¬ 
ing at the top of her speed, and not the slightest difference was 
perceptible in that part of the foot which would have come in 
contact with the shoe, whatever might have been the case with 
the side cartilages, whose action I never meant to deny. It is 
useless to talk of parts for the performance of any function, the 
exercise of which cannot be proved by well-authenticated expe¬ 
riment. We have, indeed, this gentleman’s gratuitous assertion, 
that the much-talked-of quality in question was apparent to my 
lord Morton and Mr. Bracy Clark; but we are totally left in the 
dark as to the way in which its existence was demonstrated. 
To this I can only oppose the testimony of many, in whose pre¬ 
sence I have measured the feet of several horses, and who, with¬ 
out disparagement to the great mechanical skill of the eminent per¬ 
sonages just mentioned, I would yet venture to rank much higher 
on the score of practical attainments. Mr. Clark would insi¬ 
nuate, that I had measured the feet of cart-horses and colts only. 
It is in vain to state facts to those whose preconceived theories 
and interested views they must subvert and disappoint. But to 
you, Sir, and every candid reader, I declare that the measure¬ 
ment of such feet was only adduced as a collateral support to 
what had been already clearly established on as perfect and full- 
grown feet as Nature ever formed. 
I would now most willingly drop the subject, or “ hold hard !” 
had not certain questions been addressed to me, which might 
mislead superficial observers were I to leave them unanswered. 
Before I proceed to them, it is as well to remark, that much con¬ 
fusion often arises from errors in nomenclature. To this source 
