286 
HORSE-SHOES FIXED ON WITHOUT NAILS. 
length return home to rebuke the civilized world for having tra¬ 
velled into the middle of the nineteenth century, still practising the 
method handed down to them by their forefathers, of attaching the 
indispensable shoe to the foot of the horse by driving nails into 
his hoof with violence and uncertainty. 
Let not the more scientific farrier of the metropolis and of other 
large cities take alarm at the language 1 use in thus introducing 
the subject. I have no intention of making an attack upon his 
knowledge and skill in the practice of his daily calling. If nailing 
the shoe to the hoof cannot be dispensed with; if the hammer is 
the only instrument that can be devised to effect the object re¬ 
quired—a secure fastening; most readily do I admit that the 
present system of horse-shoeing has been brought to great perfec¬ 
tion by the higher class of existing practitioners. 
It is not with their work, but with the principle upon which 
they work, that I quarrel. They have done, and are still doing, 
their best to make a detestable system, a system incurably bad in 
its origin, a good one ; and, therefore, if the world must submit, as a 
matter of unavoidable necessity, to have the shoe fastened on by 
violence, only to be removed again by violence, there is nothing 
more to be said or written upon the subject. 
I stand forward, however, fearlessly to assert that the hammer 
and the nail must give place to a process equally simple, but much 
more certain, much more effective, and fraught with incalculable 
advantages to both horse and owner. 
To deal with this subject professionally is out of my province ; 
any pretence at veterinary knowledge which I do not possess 
would be but exposing myself to ridicule. 
I must consider it a simple mechanical question, as to the best 
available means we can find of attaching an iron shoe to an insen¬ 
sible animal substance, with compactness and security, and with 
the least injury to this substance in its living state. 
If the plan of removing a small portion of the fibre of the hoof 
with scientific accuracy and precision by the gentle use of a fine 
round instrument, such as a drill, shall inflict more injury upon the 
hoof than a nail driven into it with muscular force (an asser¬ 
tion I have recently heard in a quarter whence I least expected 
it could proceed) the invention will probably perish. Further¬ 
more, if the nail secures the shoe to the foot well and satis¬ 
factorily, whilst the new method proposed proves a shaky and 
unsafe fastening, the invention must perish. Again, if it comes 
forth tainted with the sins of high price and complication, making 
war on the pockets, the time, and the brains of the million, the in¬ 
vention must perish. But if it be found that the staple gives a 
more secure fastening than the clench; if it be found that the quiet 
