EDITORIAL REMARKS. 
419 
result was, that the shoe was cast; and when it was picked up 
and examined, it was found to have undergone dilatation at the 
heels ; to which cause was ascribed the circumstance of its being 
thrown off the foot. The experiment is one readily made, and can 
at any time be repeated. 
In a conversation we lately had with a friend of ours on this 
very important subject—a gentleman who stands in the highest rank 
among metropolitan veterinary practitioners—he informed us, if the 
experiment be made of stopping up the ground-surface of an un¬ 
shod hoof with clay, after the sole has been made thin and yield¬ 
ing, and the horse be compelled, by lifting the opposite foot off the 
ground, to bear his whole weight upon it, that evident signs of 
displacement of the clay become visible when the stopped foot 
comes to be lifted and examined. So long as the clay firmly 
adheres at every point to the foot, and that it is at bottom ac¬ 
curately level with the ground, it is evident no displacement can 
take place without pression produced by the squeezing or lowering 
of some part or parts of the foot upon it; consequently, descent , 
if not expansion, is shewn by this depression or displacement of 
the clay. 
Such results of experiment on the unshod hoof nowise invali¬ 
date Mr. Gloag’s experiments on the shod foot; they disturb 
only so much of his reasoning upon them as would induce him to 
believe that in the natural condition of the foot no expansion of 
the heels and quarters takes place. His deductions, so far as 
the shod hoof is the subject of experiment, maintain their position, 
and shew us that, by shoeing, we not only in part, but in tolo, de¬ 
stroy the expansive faculties of the foot. Nor do we believe that 
we in any degree modify this result by one-sided or other nailing. 
We think that the simple circumstance of firm and fixed pressure 
of the hoof upon the shoe, without nails through them at the quar¬ 
ters and heels, is of itself sufficient to constitute fetter. 
Bating for a moment the question of expansion, our attention is 
drawn to an observation made and confirmed by Mr. Gloag in the 
course of his interesting experiments, and which is not only of 
consequence as casting some side light on expansion, but also as 
accounting for a fact better known, perhaps, to farriers than to profes¬ 
sional men, which is, the relief afforded horses going lame in their 
feet by what is called “springing” the heels of their shoes. Now 
