ON THE EXPANSION OF THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
129 
may be traced much of the quackery and humbuo; with which the 
world has been mystified on this subject, as well as many others. 
I would beg to submit, that, in the present case, the terms ex¬ 
pansion and contraction” might be much better exchanged for 
growth and absorption; for these last are the processes which 
actually take place in the feet of horses. 
jVow to the queries: Did he ever see a horse come up from 
grass with feet one-half or three-quarters of an inch wider than 
before?” I answer. Yes, many; but not from any expansion of 
old horn, but the growth of new, precisely as the human nail 
grows !—“ Did he ever see the heels of a shoe rubbed bright?” 
1 have long known that shoes, especially when they spring at 
the heels, or become somewhat detached from the foot, will be¬ 
come bright immediately under, and where they come in contact 
with the crust, from its downward pressure; but not one atom 
beyond it, which would be the case did this contractile and ex¬ 
pansive power really exist. As to the stuff'” about the nails,— 
they are always placed sufficiently in the fore part of the foot to 
admit of this contraction and dilatation, did they exist any where 
but in the “ perceptions and conclusions of theorists.”—I am 
next asked, “ Did he never see a foot collapsing and expanding 
with an expansion shoe on ?” and, of course, fixed on by eight 
or nine nails immediately round, and on each side of the rivet* ? 
I answer. No ! nor did any other man. 
The forcible compression of the heels together upon the frog, 
by which a portion of the sensible frog and parts within the 
foot are displaced, but which resume their original form when 
the pressure is removed, no more proves a naturally expansive 
and contractile power in those parts, than pressing the human 
knuckles into a small space and then releasing them proves 
that they are constantly dilating and collapsing. This resump¬ 
tion of the original form of the foot, which Mr. Clark considers 
so decidedly conclusive in favour of his theory, but which, as I 
have proved, lends it no support whatever, may be as easily as¬ 
certained with the shoe I liave described in No. 289, as with 
this newly-christened ‘^expansion” shoe, which, after all, is only 
the old shoe for all feet of Guerinieref. 
* It was very pertinently observed to me, the other day, by a friend who 
happened to see one of these newly-called expansion sl>oes, that placing a 
rivet at the toe, and tlien driving the nails round it, was something like 
I)utting a bolt into a lock, and then soldering it up ! 
t Ecole de Cavaldrie, Paris, 1/33, par M. de la Gucrinieie, Ecuycr du 
Roy, Chap, vii, p. 46 :—“11 y a (juatre sortcs de fer en usage savoir Ic for 
ordinaire, le fer k pantoufle le fer k demi pantoufle, et le for h lunette. II y 
en a encore un cinquihme, qu’on appelle fer a tons pieds, fjui se j)lie au 
milieu de la ])ince, se largit et se serre selon la forme du pied. On Pen sert 
VOL. XI. 
T 
