52 
Translations and Reviews of Continental 
Veterinary Journals. 
By W. Ernes, M.R.C.V.S., London. 
Annales de Medecine Veterinaire, Bruxelles, Sept., I 860 . 
HISTORY OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
By E. Defays. 
M. Defays remarks that in the examination of all the docu¬ 
ments which history has left us from the remotest time, there 
is nothing up to the first century of the present era which 
would lead us to believe that the ancients were acquainted with 
horse-shoes fastened to the feet with nails. There are not 
even words in their language to express the denomination of 
the modern shoeing-smith. 
When it became necessary to protect the feet of their 
horses, it was done by means of a sort of leather boot, fas¬ 
tened on with straps. The spartce of which Columella speaks, 
were made of willow or the broom. The necessity of 
allowing the horses to restore their hoofs by rest after long 
journeys, the introduction of regular roads (causeways,) the 
movements of armies, and consequently cavalry, must have 
led the Romans at an early period to devise some means 
for permanently protecting the feet of their horses. We 
find, therefore, the hippopodes were more generally applied 
to sound feet. At the present time this is still the custom 
in Japan. Afterwards these boots were protected by an 
iron plate at the bottom [Catullus). Later, the boot was 
done away with, and the straps fastened to a projection of 
the plate itself. But this mode was found to be defective, 
as it wounded the legs, and it was necessary therefore to 
improve it. Thus we find that towards the second and third 
century of our era, the Romans had already iron plates 
fastened with nails to their horses’ feet. 
These sort of shoes are found in the ruins of Grach wye, 
near Bern ; in the Roman remains of Avencium; in the 
Roman camps of Mount Terrible and Dalheim ; in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Jodoigne, Louvain, Echternach, Stuttgardt, 
&c. In all the places where the Romans have left traces of 
their sojourn, there remains of their horse-shoes have been 
found by the side of their relics. These shoes are parti¬ 
cularly distinguished by a groove or fullering extending from 
heel to heel, in which the nail-holes are placed. These 
