572 
ON SHOEING HORSES, 
are wrong. The same with shoes jointed at the toe, or, to make 
the farce the greater, at each quarter; spring-heeled, frog-barred, 
oblique, single or double barred, pantoufle, and a host of ‘'patents,” 
“improved,” and nobody knows what besides; each set forth by 
the projector as the only one ci universal,” “safe,” and “ per¬ 
fect ,” shoe that shall make an animal go sound, and “ preserve”— 
God save the mark!—the foot in its natural condition, or, as the 
blacksmith at a village not a hundred miles from Twickenham 
wrote on his sign-board “horses shod AFTER Nature and ACCORD¬ 
ING to art” But, alas for them, when others, less warped by pre¬ 
judice, put these various vaunted views to the test, they vanish into 
thin air, and, sooner or later, return to old practice and opinions, 
and too often form the conclusion that nothing out of the old beaten 
track is to be done; and in great measure it is too true; but the 
road of improvement in which much good might be achieved is 
left neglected, and the poor suffering uncomplaining animal is the 
victim. 
Each theorist in succession assumes that the foot of every ani¬ 
mal is the fac-simile of some ideal model, as faithfully copied in 
every instance, save in size, as a cast from the same mould. It 
would be a most fortunate thing for us who have to practise the 
art of shoeing were it so ; but, alas, how different does experience 
teach us—as I once heard expressed by one who has given this 
subject much attention, Mr. James Turner, “ every foot is a study 
in itself.” A volume could not express more : it is the very epi¬ 
tome of truth. 
But to resume. In the first place, it will not be requisite to 
go through the whole of the twenty-four experiments in limine ; 
and though I am about to remark on them, I can only say, 
I am glad to see that so much labour has been bestowed on the 
subject, regretting, at the same time, as I do most sincerely, the 
useless labour and false manner in which a large number have 
been carried out, putting the parts into positions and under cir¬ 
cumstances which never can exist in Nature, and are, therefore, at 
once thrown out from all purposes of inference and of criticism. 
Need I further than mention experiments 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 
14, 17, and 19, in which dead parts are placed in a vice, and 
forcibly squeezed together in a manner and in a degree that never 
exists in nature under any circumstances. To criticise such expe¬ 
riments as these would be useless—a mere waste of time and 
space, and an insult to those who have any knowledge of the sub¬ 
ject or any reflective powers. I shall, therefore, confine myself to 
the results given at pp. 382, 383 of your Journal for July. 
Conclusion 1st:—Erroneous ; or how is it that horses will not 
bear to have the shoe attached by nails driven at the quarters on 
