88 
REVIEW. 
page 18, he says:—“ As this laminated substance continues 
from the toe to each quarter, it is turned more and more aslant, 
by which it obtains a still greater power of yielding to the 
shock. The quarters being also made thinner, have more power 
of expanding themselves, by a given impulse from the bones.” 
One more extract, and we will close Freeman, to look into a 
work of older date:—“A horse may be said to have a foot 
half-cloven, that is to say, a foot having the power of expansion 
at the clefts of the heels, but confined at the toe.”—P. 101. 
The above quotations leave, in our mind, little room for du- 
bitation in pointing out the authorities to whom the merit of the 
primitive exposition of the principle of elasticity in the foot ought 
not to be awarded, though they may not be altogether conclusive 
in determining the author to whom such merit is chiefly due, and 
especially when we come to append to them passages from 
writers of older date—such as James Clarke and Osmer —having 
undeniable bearing upon, if not direct reference to, the same 
identical principle. Forexample, James Clark, in 1782, wrote— 
“ In the middle of the frog is a longitudinal cleft or opening, by 
which the heels have a small degree of contraction and expan¬ 
sion at every tread which the horse takes upon the ground.” 
3d edit. p. 36. And further on he savs—“This part of the hoof 
(the part which projects backwards from the bones) contains a 
tough, fatty, cellular substance; hence it easily admits of con¬ 
traction and expansion .”—p. 38. While Osmer, of older date 
still, in 1764, writes—“To prove that shoeing is but a partial 
good, take this same narrow-heeled or strong-footed horse, pare 
down the crust as much as you can, cut the toe off round and 
short, and turn him out to grass bare-footed, he will become 
sound in course of time, if the interior parts of the foot are not 
diseased. The true cause of which is, that the foot not being 
confined in the shoe, the weight of the horse expands the same ."— 
p. 20. 
We shall now quit this part of our subject, simply with the 
remark, that the same point, more particularly as concerns Bracy 
Clark’s share in the discovery, was mooted many years ago, 
and pretty warmly discussed in the numbers of our Journal 
for 1830-31 ; to which we may refer inquiring readers 
for very full and impartial accounts of a history which we 
