MR. GLOAG’S EXPERIMENTS ON HORSES’ FEET. 447 
its relations stands first and foremost, Position : of which, indeed, 
such is the importance, that I would almost say it lays claim to 
equivalent consideration. Of what value is the most beautifully 
proportioned limb to the eye even, much less in point of utility, 
whose different parts are set in awkward or unnatural position ] 
The head may be its proper length and breadth, and so likewise 
may be the neck; but of what avail is all this unless these parts 
are properly and advantageously conjoined ? Position intrudes 
upon us while we are measuring the limb; and, in despite of every 
consideration we can give it, after all, turns out such a wayward and 
intractable thing to deal with, that we cannot anywise fashion it in 
our scale of dimensions.” “ These authors have placed more weight 
and importance on their ‘ scales of proportions’ than they seem to 
be deserving of; and have, in attending so much to their geome¬ 
trical admeasurement, neglected, or at least disregarded, that 
necessary and indispensable concomitant of proportion, position, by 
which, of course, I mean relative position.” 
The same remarks are applicable to the foot of the horse, both 
in the unshod and shod state; the states of the hoof, or last “ spring” 
of the foot, depending almost entirely on position. Now it is too 
much, perhaps, to expect a knowledge of the conformation of the 
horse in the shoeing smith, seeing that educated veterinarians 
acquire it with difficulty by “ dint of observation,” assisted by 
their anatomical knowledge: yet the shoeing of horses well de¬ 
pends much upon a knowledge of predisposition. The shoeing 
smith does not go beyond “ dint of observation” of the hoof, by 
which he should be able to tell the conformation of the horse, al¬ 
though body and limbs were enveloped in clothing, knee-caps, and 
boots. Again: by seeing the horse only, and not the feet, he 
would be able to say what kind of feet the horse has, the mode of 
shoeing, &c. The veterinarian, as a physiologist, may, like the 
engineer, lay down and draw out the rules; the workmen, whether 
it is a horse or locomotive, have the carrying of these out. Be¬ 
grimed with soot, perhaps, he is not—at least, should not be, as 
vulgarly supposed — an ignorant man: he is the able coadjutor 
without whom the man of talent cannot carry out his plans; left 
to themselves, as they must of necessity be, in most practical cases 
they require their knowledge, upon which the safety of one’s life 
may depend. Crippled by the ordinary practice of shoeing, the 
riding or driving of such horses is unsafe; the working up of 
horses, in a financial point of view, is a direct loss to the public, 
the per centage of which cannot well be estimated; and this, too, 
by persisting in the custom of parallel plane shoeing both at toe 
and heels. The physiologist has failed to impress that on the pub¬ 
lic attention, because his studies are removed from public view’. 
