490 PROTRUSION OF THE WOMB IN SOWS. 
civall, in the last Number of The VETERINARIAN, boldly and at 
once gets rid of the subject, when he writes regarding Mr. Gloag’s 
deductions “that a firm and fixed pressure of the hoof upon the shoe, 
without nails through them at the quarters and ‘heels, is of itself 
sufficient to constitute fetterand what is the reason! Because 
the form of the hoof is here, as Mr. Clark described it, like the 
section of a cylinder, by which there becomes declined 33° and 35° 
after the action of the hoof, which can never happen unless there 
is space, or as in the case of the patent sandal, the force of action 
of the heels overcoming the resistance. I think Mr. Gloag will 
not deny this slight degree of dilatation; but this is downwards 
and backwards, of course, as it is by the slight depression of the 
sole at the point of the frog : it is also from within outwards, but 
this is not lateral expansion. With all deference to the opinion 
of his friend, I will, for one, admit the “ descent ” without begging 
the question by making “ the sole thin and yielding,” a state of 
the hoof which is not natural, even in a heavy horse with high 
action: this is the predisposing cause of the sole becoming thin, 
and the spring of the hoof being entirely lost. It is the perfection 
of the art of shoeing to counteract this, as well as to allow of the 
little action there is in the hoofs of lighter horses with low action. 
The difference in volume of the hoof at once gives the necessary 
difference in the length and flexibility of the springs that are to be 
attached to the ordinary shoes; and the space through which it is 
to descend gradually from the quarters to the points of the heels, 
where at the inner heel of the first variety of hoof it is, at most, 
not more than -fa part of the diameter of the circumference of the 
upper part of the hoof.—No more at present from the men in our 
shop. 
(Signed) JOHN SMITH. 
Section of a method of attaching springs to thin level or thick-heeled shoes, opposite secondary 
bearing of the crust at the heels. 
