REMARKS ON SHOEING. 
501 
This one of the most important points of a veterinary surgeon’s 
duties is neglected, is left to the tender mercy of the ignorant shoe- 
ing-smith, or, what is as bad, the groom or jockey. The bulk of 
veterinary surgeons know but little about it. An attempt has been 
made, through the examinations, to cause this to be better attended 
to; but still it is not taught: the letter of the requirement is at¬ 
tempted to be attended to by the merely taking off a shoe, paring a 
foot, and nailing on the shoe again, most probably in the old holes. 
But the spirit of the requirement is left untouched: if a man intends 
to be a shoeing-smith he must go into a forge and work out a fair 
apprenticeship : but this is not wanted of a veterinary surgeon; he 
is not called on to exercise it, at all events in this kingdom. I can 
speak on this subject with confidence, because in my youthful days 
I learnt that branch of my art, and can to this day turn to with the 
leather apron, and work the turn with other men, either at the foot 
or the anvil; but, with the rare exception of having now and then 
to take off or put on a shoe, or to make one fast in an emergency 
in the absence of a farrier, I have not had occasion to employ this 
knowledge for more than twenty years, except for whim or caprice; 
it is not, therefore, requisite to possess it: but this knowledge has 
taught me the functions of the different parts of the foot, as well as 
in what good shoeing consists; it has shewn me in what manner 
the feet in their different varieties ought to be shod—to discriminate 
between the well fitted shoe and mere well finished shoe : in fact, 
it has given me that, as the result of my own labour and reflection, 
which I ought to have had taught me in our Veterinary College, 
and which could as well have been taught me, without my ever 
having on the leather apron, as with it. To those of my veterinary 
compeers who have had the advantage of being brought up in con¬ 
nexion with a forge I shall be perfectly understandable; and to 
those who have not, I can only regret that they should have been so 
unfortunate as not to be practically acquainted with this important 
subject. 
It does not require a man to be a good cook to understand a good 
dinner, nor to be a good tailor or boot-maker to know a good fitting 
coat or boot; but it is required in each instance that a man should 
have that degree of training or teaching that he may know in what 
the goodness consists: so it is with a veterinary surgeon and the 
shoeing of the horse’s foot. 
It happens that every keeper of horses can more or less quickly 
find out w'hen his horse goes well or ill after he has been shod; 
and hence, if he has been in the habit of sending his horse to be 
shod at a forge belonging to a veterinary surgeon, and finds that 
his horse does not go well, he hears of some “ farrier” who is 
