IT. S. VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
461 
especially when shoeing is to be left in the hands of a blacksmith, to take meas¬ 
urements of the foot in order to know just what had been gained from time to 
time, both in the size of the circumference of the foot at its plantar surface and 
coronary border, and as to the angles of the wall at toe, quarters and heels. 
For this purpose, and for use in construction, I have invented this instrument, a 
Podometer, (podo, foot, and meter, a measure), Fig. 7, which can be brought to 
bear on any part of the foot, showing the level of the sole and heels and the an¬ 
gles of the walls. The instrument is useful also in verifying differences of opin¬ 
ion which exist between the more or less experienced persons who are interested 
in a shoeing. 
In cases of moderate contraction, with little or no twisting of the foot, it can 
now be leveled and the contracted portions relieved of pressure at once. In 
more severe cases, the alteration in shape must be nursed, a little at a time, as a 
too radical change may predispose to missteps, wrenches, or excessive pressure 
at another point, producing traumatisms at other parts. Shoes are also used 
which by their shape or by the addition of springs, screws or other devices, force 
the heels apart; but these latter methods should be used with great caution so 
as not to produce rupture of the blood vessels and complicating inflammation. 
The choice of shoe depends much upon the surroundings in which the horse is 
to be placed, if at pasture or in the stable, if at exercise only or at work, and the 
severity of the work ; again, a case left in the veterinarian’s infirmary can be 
treated with heroic dilatation, while that remaining with the owner must be 
treated with more conservatism, unless it can be seen frequently. The following 
are the principal methods of expansion : 
a. Barefeet; where expansion is obtained by frog pressure ; this, of course, 
is only applicable to animals which are to do nothing. 
b. Tips, slippers , half-shoes, three-quarter shoes, semilunar shoe or truncated 
shoe, which acts in the same way, but protects the wall from breaking. (Figs. 
8, 9). 
Fig. 8. Fig. 9. 
c. Bar shoes are indicated when the frog is very much atrophied and pres¬ 
sure cannot be brought upon it with a plain shoe. Bar shoe as commonly made 
(Fig. 10); as properly made (Fig. 11). 
d. Unilateral nailing of Turner (Fig. 12); with this system the frog and 
remainder of the foot has play from the toe and mamma to which the shoe is 
nailed. 
