5 56 
ON SHOEING HORSES. 
hoof of the spring or concavity, by paring away too much of the 
crust, and then “ concussion to the sole happens,” he said, “ par¬ 
ticularly on the pavement, and that otherwise would not take 
place.” 
You see, mates, these are serious charges of omission, and of what 
we have committed, for which masters have hitherto sheltered 
themselves from blame under that convenient shield physiology; 
but, seeing the manner that some endeavoured to carry it out in 
practice, it is questionable whether they even understood what the 
great Caliph said about the physiology and practice of springing 
the heels in his Lectures on flat feet and contractions, from winch 
I will quote what bears particularly on this question, and solicit 
your attention :—“ We will now consider a disease which is con¬ 
fined almost wholly to heavy horses, or to those with high action. 
Flat, convex, or fleshy feet, the same in kind, differing only in 
degree. No writer understood the nature of this disease, which 
throws considerable light on the cause of contracted feet in light 
horses, or those with low action. You may always know the state 
of the sole by looking at the crust: in proportion as the crust in 
front is oblique, so will the sole be flat or convex accordingly. 
The lame foot will be more oblique in the crust than the sound 
one : this throws light on the use of the laminae; the crust cannot 
be pressed towards the sole without something giving way or being 
displaced. The sole was never intended to support more weight 
than that transferred from the elastic laminae elongating; but here 
the crust gives way, it is unable to support the weight, and it falls 
on the sole, which, in consequence, became flat or convex. Now 
there is not the same obliquity of the crust at the quarters, the 
action of the coffin-bone being obliquely backwards, the anterior 
part being supported by laminae, while the posterior is supported 
by the flexor muscles and tendons, the descent of the coffin-bone at 
the heels is not in 'proportion!' Now, mark this! Here is a state 
of the hoof in which, you see, mates, the last spring (of the foot), 
the sole and crust at the heels, is completely destroyed; i. e., you 
cannot have spring without motion and elasticity: here both are 
gone; and the manner it happened is explained by the physiology, 
not of the laminae only, but by that of the whole foot. 
The state of the hoof supports the truth of the physiology. 
What more do you want to convince you that, had such a horse 
had springs at the heels of the shoes, this destruction of the heels 
and sole, the natural spring, would have been prevented ] it would 
have afforded the necessary support to the heels, and by preventing 
the heels being worn too much by percussion against the shoe (even 
though these might have been sprung, or not too tightly nailed on 
at the heels), and the sole would not have become flat or convex. 
