208 
NAILING HORSESHOES ON, 
Were we to listen to every novelty-monger, we should speedily 
find ourselves embarked upon a sea fraught with rocks and 
q uicksands, and no longer be able to assure ourselves of safety 
until we had again disembarked upon that terra Jirma which 
nothing' but the fullest conviction and experience should ever 
induced us to have quitted. 
If there be any thing' beyond another to which the veterina¬ 
rian finds himself professionally allied by nature, it is the prac¬ 
tice of shoeing—such as it has been in principle for many long 
years: by which principle, I mean, the custom of nailing the 
shoe to the hoof\ Any man who proposed any other mode of 
attaching the shoe than this, would be eyed (and justly so) with 
suspicion—ay, and distrust too. For this reason, Mr. rercivall’s 
invention of the Horse Sandal (which, by the by, is only intended 
as a temporary substitute) will, whatever may be its merits, take 
some time to make its way with the public. And for the same 
reason the present alteration (even though it be only an altera~ 
tion) in the process of nailing the shoe to the hoof, recom¬ 
mended by Mr. Turner, will, whatever hereafter may prove its 
advantages, require time for its general adoption. This time, 
however, may be much abridged by the test of experiment, and 
even by a theoretical discussion of the nature of the innovation, 
together with the advantages consequent upon its adoption. 
Mr. Turner proposes that, instead of nailing the shoe, accord¬ 
ing to the common and universal practice, upon both sides, we 
should (w ithout diminishing the number of them) so introduce 
the nails, that the inner side of the shoe and hoof be left entirely 
without any. His directions, in his own words, for the disposal 
of the eight or nine nails, are—“ six in the outside quarter and 
toe of the foot, and two in the inside toe: no nail-hole to be 
punched immediately in the centre of the toe of the shoe, there¬ 
by avoiding any inconvenience which might arise from the joint 
pressure of the clip and nail at this part; but the first nail-nole 
to be punched close to it, at the outside toe, and the remaining 
five as far distant from each other as possible, without the last 
nail approaching nearer the outside heel than is consistent with 
the safety of its insertion; the first nail in the inside toe to be 
punched full an inch from the inside edge of the clip.” Such 
are Mr. Turner’s instructions to us, which he recommends us to 
pursue instead of continuing the old and established practice; 
and which he extols, on account of its unfettering the foot from 
that state of bondage in which it is placed by the ordinary mode 
of inserting nails through both sides. 
The plainest, and perhaps the justest view, we can take ol any 
innovation of the kind advocated by Mr. Turner, is to make a 
