738 TRANSLATIONS FROM CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
ON PATHOLOGICAL HORSE-SHOEING; OP, THE RATIONAL 
APPLICATION OE HORSE-SHOES EOR THE TREATMENT 
OF THE DISORDERS OF THE FOOT AND ITS MEMBERS. 
By M. E. Defays, Professor at the Veterinary School of 
Cureghem-lez-Bruxelles. 
This pamphlet on shoeing, by M. E. Defays, is principally 
devoted to the application of the shoe in a pathological point 
of view, but his suggestions for the ordinary shoe may be 
useful. 'The protection which nature has provided for the 
foot of the horse and the ox—animals which man has adapted 
to his service—would not long resist wear and tear if the art 
of shoeing had not come to its aid. In the application of 
this mode of protection the form and structure of the hoof, 
the organs contained in it, the functions of the foot generally, 
more particularly those of the fore and hind legs, and also 
the kind of work and nature of the ground, are to be taken 
into consideration. The shoe should protect the hoof without 
interfering with the function of the foot: a shoe of equal 
thickness in all its parts will be the best adapted for this 
purpose. In making the toe three times the thickness of the 
heel, as recommended by Coleman, the aplomb is destroyed, 
and the legs are soon ruined. By paring the sole, frog, and 
bars, as recommended by Miles, the feet are put in an 
unnatural condition. Reason and experience teach us to 
spare those parts, the functions of which are to protect the 
soft parts contained in the horny box or hoof. To preserve 
the integrity of the form and function of the foot, only that 
which has been added by growth since the last shoeing 
should be removed by the knife, and from the frog and sole 
only those parts which become spontaneously detached. 
Shoeing, the author says, should be based on science; 
nothing should be sacrificed to caprice or fashion; rational 
shoeing is that which unites all the requirements of anatomy, 
physiology, and economy. 
By making a slight alteration in the shoeing, that is, either 
in the shoe or the preparing of the foot, decided effects are 
produced on the distribution of the weight, and the action, 
and more particularly on one part or other of the legs. These 
physical and dynamic effects are made use of as modifiers of 
the aplomb and the tread, and minister, directly or indirectly, 
to the treatment of the diseases of the legs and feet; since, 
