ON SHOEING HORSES. 
615 
manding officer, riding master, farrier major, the groom or jockey, 
interfering with shoeing is quite beside the question of the merits 
of veterinary surgeons, whether in the army or out of it, to direct 
the shoeing of horses. The bulk of veterinary surgeons should be 
very much obliged to the writer, and particularly the former, whose 
ignorance and idleness it appears is bliss, notwithstanding the more 
than angel visits of the complaints on this subject. Now, sir, where 
are you, boy ! Here, sir. I am going to try your capability of 
marching—no whim or fashion ought to be tolerated; it is taught 
as a science. Now, do the goose step. What is that, sir] Hold 
up one foot till I tell you to put it down, like a lame horse going 
to the knackers. March ! I can tell with tolerable correctness at 
a glance. I may look in vain for the spirit of the requirement 
here; I must send you to Germany by and by. I’ll make a journey¬ 
man of you on the keenly alive authorities, whoever they may be, 
for I do not (like another vet. the other day) care to say, “ attempts 
have been made to make every dragoon capable of shoeing his own 
horse: this has failed.” What a precious regiment this must have 
been ! neither commanding officer, riding master, or veterinary sur¬ 
geon, could teach how to nail on a shoe! What an anomaly ! It 
could not have been a crack regiment, with half a dozen young 
officers, with each some thousands a-year; not one groom or jockey, 
drag or racer, or the man that nailed the shoe to the fore-mast of 
their yacht—what an unfortunate regiment! Read this, you vete¬ 
rinary professors; your students merely took off the shoe, pared the 
foot, and nailed on the shoe again in the old nail-holes, cunning 
rogues. How Larry Devine would have laughed, and right hearty 
too, to be told that “ the foot is naturally composed of the same 
organization in every individual of the genus equina.” Horn is 
horn, I know; but I have yet to learn that which is stated of it in 
the foot of the horse. Then, as to the horseshoe, where are the 
public to be supplied with this “ happy mean, in which utility 
consists,” in every city, town, and village, of the kingdom ] Can 
the workmen from the blacksmiths’ shops all over the kingdom be 
brought to be taught in a proper class-room] It cannot be insisted 
on even with the veterinary student. A young man goes to the 
Veterinary College or to Edinburgh to learn the higher branches 
of his profession. In the name of fortune—for it would require one 
—are parents to pay for his frittering away his time in acquiring a 
mere handicraft, which, unless he be a very stupid fellow, and with¬ 
out any tact, he can acquire at any time it may be convenient ] 
The proposal is preposterous. 
The parents of individuals sent to the Veterinary College have, 
in general, but slender means; a young man’s residence, &c., in 
town for any period is heavy enough to make the student reflect 
