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DISCOVERY OF THE EXPANSION OF THE FOOT. 311 
ready at all times to meet this absurd doctrine, to contend against 
it openly, and prove its fallacy ; for, if 1 know any thing- about 
the matter, the natural tendency of the hoof is to collapse, and 
that it requires force and weight to expand it; but as in 
fully shewing the errors of the bow system , many more which 
Mr. B. Clark has fallen into would immediately spring up, and 
occupy, I fear, a larger portion of your Journal than 1 could 
venture to expect, I must therefore, on this occasion, refrain from 
entering into this part of the subject, with many important 
points of Mr. Freeman's, but shall be happy to do so in another 
paper, at an early opportunity; and 1 have also a few by-words 
and comments to advance on side-nailing, which 1 find is not 
quite so modern as some persons wish it to be. 
As to Mr. Freeman’s not clearly understanding what he wrote, 
and that he was not acquainted with the subject, is all down¬ 
right misrepresentation ; I positively deny it, and firmly maintain 
to the contrary; and further, I assert that since Mr. Freeman’s 
valuable work appeared so ably explaining the expansive action— 
a work which every practitioner ought to closely study that 
wishes to become acquainted with the true action of the horse's 
foot—it has been noticed by Mr. R. Lawrence, and others. It 
may perhaps be asked, if Mr. B. Clark has done nothing in the 
affair; to which I most readily answer, that I should be extremely 
sorry to deprive any man of a single merit, or of any of his just 
deserts, on any grounds or pretensions whatever ; and therefore, 
as St. Paul says, “ behold 1 shew you a mystery;” and 1 assure 
you it is one that shall not soon or easily be changed. Mr. B. 
Clark, by much study, learning, and ingenuity, has clapped on 
an old French jointed shoe , delineated, perhaps, first in this 
country by Blundevill, and afterwards by the Duke of New¬ 
castle, and Sainbel the first Professor at the Veterinary College, 
(it is also to be seen represented in the works of Gueriniere, 
and others), on Mr. Freeman's clear, beautiful, and simple de¬ 
scription of the expansion of the foot: but all apparently without 
understanding it, as the bow and string concern, more particu¬ 
larly, and nearly the whole of his writings, clearly evince. This 
old rivet-jointed shoe, after various improvements through the 
aid of the malleable cast iron process, the principal knowledge 
of which was derived from the labours and experience of Mr. 
Goodwin, Sen., but the credit for which, I believe, has never 
been given him, has brought forth the present expansion shoe, 
as it is called. J cannot make more or less than this of it: others, 
possibly, if well paid, might swell out the account to pages; but, 
after all, it must again come to this, say what they will. 
I was on the eve of expressing my astonishment at the assu¬ 
rance and assertions we sometimes meet with, and made bv 
