REVIEW— ILLUSTRATIVE FARRIERY. 
141 
the number of plates he has with his own hand elaborated for the 
work. Thus much prefaced, we shall endeavour to give a general 
outline of Mr. Hodgson’s method of proceeding by rule and mea¬ 
sure; refraining from venturing any opinion thereon until such 
time as we shall have had opportunities of ascertaining how far 
his gradients of density and obliquity may prove to be in con¬ 
sonance with the actual and pretty uniformly relative admeasure¬ 
ments of the component parts of the hoof. 
Mr. Hodgson considers it to be in our power in all horses to 
discover the line round the crust through which, if the hoof were 
absolutely sawn, horizontally, the sensible parts would be no more 
than brushed; consequently, if nails were driven into the hoof, up 
to this part, they could not be at any point perpendicularly op¬ 
posite to the sensible parts, and so could not possibly press upon 
them. His directions to find this line are as follow:— 
Take a piece of tape, and pass it round the upper surface of the 
hoof, back to the heels. This circumferent measurement will, of 
course, vary in different horses. In the thorough-bred Arab it is 
stated at twelve inches. One-third of this length, whatever it 
may be, is considered to be the diameter of the hoof, which is 
divided into twelve parts, to form a scale. To ascertain the 
lowest parts of the crust, which are directly opposite to the sensi¬ 
ble parts, he measures 7^ parts of the said scale on the outside 
quarter, from the coronet downwards, and makes a mark; 
parts upon the centre of the hoof, directly in front; and 7 parts 
upon the inside quarter. A line is then drawn through these three 
points, and continued thence to the bulbs of the heels. 
Mr. Hodgson shews, by a plaster cast model of a hoof, and by 
very numerous drawings, that if the foot were sawn through 
horizontally in the direction of this line, the same would only just 
brush the nethermost portions of the sensible parts. Such are the 
directions given for normal feet in general, possessing good straight 
action : for other feet deviations will be required from such rules. 
And we can but regret our space will not allow us to follow Mr. 
Hodgson through his very ingenious plans for finding this line in 
malformations of feet, and such other varieties as proceed from 
defective action or defective conformation. In these cases the line, 
VOL. XXII. 
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