500 
REMARKS ON SHOEING. 
ment of our art—tend to make that which is clear and easy of 
comprehension obscure and complicated—lead astray the mind— 
and reduce the beautiful simplicity of Nature’s works to the level of 
a mere machine, the work of man’s hands. 
Perhaps we need not wonder at the fanciful theories on the foot 
and on shoeing which are constantly being put forth, when we 
consider that the large mass of authors and projectors are, properly 
speaking, in great measure ignorant of the subject; that is to say, 
they do not combine that knowledge of the structure and physio¬ 
logy of this part of the animal with the dirty, disagreeable, and 
hard work of practical shoeing: it is but rare that these are found 
combined, and, when they are, still more rare is it that the results 
are given to the world. 
Of the knowledge of the structure of the foot without under¬ 
standing the shoeing, no more eminent instance can be adduced 
than the late Professor Coleman. Is there a single invention put 
forth by that gentleman as an improvement in shoeing now being 
carried out ? Have we made any real advance from the habits or 
work or forms of our ancestors, the “ farriers ]” Not any worth 
mentioning. A piece of iron has to be made to the shape of the 
foot, and fastened thereto with nails driven through the crust. The 
drawing-knife has superseded the buttress; but, after all that has 
been said respecting it, it is not by any means clear that the but¬ 
tress was such a devil-formed implement as it has been the fashion 
of late years to depict it. It still is any thing but made out that 
there was of old a larger proportion of horses lame from shoeing 
than there is now: of course, making all due allowance for the 
increased liability from the harder roads and the quicker pace, I 
am satisfied that there is not any sensible difference. 
A shoe is well hammered, well filed up, and is a good specimen of 
workmanship; and yet the poor animal cannot go at all in it, though 
the nails may be well and skilfully driven, and the whole, when 
finished, both neat and workmanlike: the foot so shod is taken up, 
examined, the shoe taken off and re-applied, with the impression that 
there is nothing in the foot to cause lameness. Of this kind of shoe¬ 
ing this town abounds with instances; yet they pass unheeded, or 
to the mass are unknown; while, on the other hand, we see the 
roughest, clumsiest shoe (condemned, and very properly so, for its 
bad workmanship) applied in the place of the former, and the horse 
goes sound. This simple fact, of daily occurrence, I have never 
seen alluded to;—no notice taken of it, no explanation of its causes, 
or, in fact, in any way adverted to: the directions for shoeing leave 
so wide a margin for inference, that, if we had scarcely any or 
none at all, we should be hardly less clear. 
