THE ART OF SHOEING SIMPLIFIED. 
131 
Gentlemen, notwithstanding* the profound respect which I 
entertain for Mr. Coleman, viewing* him as a teacher of the ve¬ 
terinary art, unequalled perhaps in Europe, I have occasion to 
differ in opinion with this high authority, respecting the descent 
of the sole. Mr. C. lays great stress, both in his Treatise on the 
Foot and in his Lectures, on the difference in the degree of 
descent of various parts of the sole, ascribing very great move¬ 
ment to that portion of sole towards the heel or seat of corn; 
whilst he contends there is little or no descent of sole towards 
the toe. Hence it appears, that Mr. Colemans theory of the 
yielding of the coffin bone obliquely backwards and downwards, 
the descent of the sole principally towards the heels, and ex¬ 
pansion of the quarters instead of the entire organ, is so ac¬ 
commodating to the present pernicious mode of nailing or fet¬ 
tering the foot on both sides, that I fear the Royal Veterinary 
College will be the last to admit the new system of side- 
nailing. 
My brother, Mr. Thomas Turner, of Croydon, has practised 
this new unfettered plan of shoeing to a great extent; and I 
have his authority for stating, that the owners of such horses and 
persons concerned have extolled the system in raptures. 
There is only one drawback or alloy, and never can be but 
one ; but that is of an appalling kind, particularly in these hard 
times; viz. it will cut off our supply of best patients, by the 
'prevention of lameness: but patriotism should ever prevail. 
I feel that as much might be urged in favour of a ra¬ 
dical reform in the shoeing* art as would usefully occupy the 
attention of the Society for half a session; but for the pre¬ 
sent I shall conclude my paper with a few remarks on the 
mechanical execution of the plan I have recommended. Now 
it fortunately happens, that next in importance to the prin¬ 
ciple itself, is the simplicity of its practical application. I need 
not remind you, that all the inventive faculties of Mr. Bracy 
Clark and others have been taxed for a series of years, and 
have contributed ingenious contrivances, by which the shoe 
yields to the foot; most of them admirable in principle, but 
incompatible with practice. It is now quite obvious that their 
mistake, together with a prodigious sacrifice of valuable time, 
are owing to the complexity of their efforts in making the 
iron shoe to spread with the foot, which is altogether useless 
and uncalled for, as the foot can dilate with much less em¬ 
barrassment by itself, the ordinary shoe being: affixed, except 
with the omission of the nails in the inside quarter. 
When I say the ordinary or common shoe, I mean that well- 
wrought piece of iron commonly applied in the principal forges 
