474 THE DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 
Argentier, in one of his rich liveries, among his train of footmen, 
out of a tawny velvet bag, took others, and tackt them on, which 
lasted till he came to the next troup of grandees; and thus, with 
much ado, he reached the Louvre*.” 
In the chivalrous ages a marching party of marauders, by placing 
the horses’ shoes in a reversed manner, deceived pursuers, who, 
seeing the toe-marks in a given direction, turned their backs 
upon the route they pursued. It was, we believe, most practised 
by moss-troopers in the Border Wars, who had often very great 
reason to avoid capture, for the gallows not unfrequently closed 
their account. 
Rough shoeing obtains attention in all cold climates where ice 
and sudden frosts on roads demand it. Continental farriers “cock” 
the heels of the shoes to insure a firm footing, and prefer the prac¬ 
tice as more safe than the use of rough shoeing nails, which are 
liable to break off, when, the heads of the nails being gone, the 
horseshoe is left smooth and loose on the foot: this is the case 
more particularly where ice lies on paved roads, where all methods 
of rough shoeing are of little avail; as we have amply experienced 
on many occasions, and a sudden frost on a London thaw often 
exemplifies by the numerous and distressing falls of carriage and 
brewers’ horses then witnessed. 
The great difficulty in the management of a horse’s foot seems 
always to have been how to combine the preservation of the cor¬ 
neous substance without contracting the heel. Iron shoes with a 
hinge at the toe have been tried, it appears, in vain. Veterina¬ 
rians, after infinite experiments, have certainly succeeded in design¬ 
ing an improved shoe ; but, after all, it seems that, like the ladies’ 
shoes of China, cramping the feet to some extent is inherent in the 
material, and in sandy countries unshod horses have many advan¬ 
tages. We have known India-rubber shoes successfully adopted 
to restore the feet of horses seriousl} 7 injured. It may still be a 
question whether a composition of the same, caoutchouc and coarse 
hair or felt, might not be made to answer the most requisite quali¬ 
ties of iron shoes, without producing their defects. 
United Service Magazine. 
On the Distinctions between Animals and Plants. 
By Robert Bentley, Esq., F.L.S., 
Lecturer on Botany at the London Hospital. 
If we compare together the higher tribes of the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms, we shall find no difficulty in forming a distinct 
idea as to which kingdom of nature they respectively belong. 
* Wilson’s James I, p. 94. This occurred a.d. 1616. 
