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WILLIAMSON BRYDEN. 
The fact is, veterinary pathologists have hardly hinted to 
the hoof as being the cause of diseases appearing elsewhere 
on the horse’s limbs or body, yet they imagined that they 
easily understood how bone spavin and splints might be 
caused by a blow or some mysterious diathesis. To discrim¬ 
inate between the aetiology of changes caused by a blow, and 
the aetiology of the blemishes, transformations and tissue 
changes peculiar to the horse’s feet and legs, never seems to 
have entered their heads. 
Old maxims, mysterious traditions, and “ fake ” practices 
and notions handed down from remote periods, the veterinary 
pathologist could always explain to the satisfaction of the 
profession, such simple faith has ever been accorded their 
teachings that they have ever been allowed to pass unques¬ 
tioned. 
This applies especially to the study of the locomotive or¬ 
gans of the horse and their treatment, which is still so coarse 
and inconsistent that it is hardly creditable to the veterinary 
profession in the year 1893. 
Again appealing to you to take up this glorious subject, 
and apologizing for any censure I may have unjustly implied, 
for I am used to being censured and even sneered at, and have 
long and patiently submitted to the taunts and criticisms of 
both horsemen and veterinarians. They have pained me 
much. 
In closing this article I sincerely hope to find hoof culture, 
before long, one of our most interesting and popular profes¬ 
sional topics, studied not onty by members of the veterinary 
profession, but by the horseshoer and the farmer, the farrier 
and the trainer, the gentlemen of leisure and the owner. I 
also sincerely hope to see a horse-shoeing department in every 
college, liberally endowed, and showering blessings on our 
long suffering and much abused friend, the horse. 
