128 
THE ART OF SHOEING SIMPLIFIED. 
horses; and thus acutely observes—“ For this, I think, there 
can be no other reason than the increase of spring- which is 
gained by the additional power of expansion given to his feet , 
by leaving the heels entirely unconfined.^ In the next leaf but 
one, this unpretending discoverer is content to disclose to us the 
gTand secret quietly. These few plain words of his will suffice ; 
viz. “ Upon examining race-horses* shoes, which had formerly 
been used, I found many of them very long, with nine or ten 
nails in them, and these pretty close together, and chiefly at the 
heels; by which there was double the risk of laming the horses 
in shoeing, and double the tendency to impede their going , by 
the heels being bound so as to prevent their spring 
I am, however, free to confess, that I think Mr. Bracy Clark's 
writings, which relate to the anatomical structure and functions 
of the horse's foot, will amply repay the student for his time 
in reading them again and again; but with regard to this gen¬ 
tleman’s views of the pathology of that organ, I am completely 
at issue with him. 
These points of difference between us I shall endeavour to 
explain, at a future opportunity, in another paper, which will 
embrace the general diseases and accidents to which the horse's 
foot is liable. 
I have now a few 7 observations to offer in illustration of the 
baneful effects of iron and nails upon the elastic foot of the 
horse. In the discussion which followed my two papers on 
the Nature of the Navicular Joint Disease, its Causes, Symptoms, 
and Treatment, it will be remembered by many gentlemen 
present, that I proved to demonstration a pathological fact, 
winch w as doubted by most of the members then present; by 
some most strenuously denied, and satisfaction or ocular de¬ 
monstration demanded: of course, this mandate w 7 as instantly 
obeyed ; and on unsheathing the weapons several diseased, con¬ 
tracted feet appeared , and in contrasting them with healthy, 
open feet, I satisfactorily proved to a numerous meeting of this 
Society, an unnatural position or elevation of the coffin bone 
voithin the hoof. Assured of the frequency of the occurrence of 
this altered position of the foot bone in feet which had been 
shod, and particularly with those horses in which the ordinary 
precautions for preserving the elasticity of the horn, through 
caprice or neglect, had been omitted, I am led from these 
data to the following deductions: 1st, That the common method 
of affixing the shoe by nailing to both sides of the hoof has an 
immediate tendency to destroy the equilibrium or just balance 
of the weight when conveyed to the hoof. 
The hundreds of elastic laminae or plates which surround the 
