REMARKS ON THE GOODENOUGH SHOE. 87 
pearecl^ having been worn down to the level of the shoe; and, 
consequently, the temporary advantage resulting from them 
no longer exists. In several of the newly-made shoes which 
I saw at the forge I have spoken of, the projeetions were but 
very slight indeed. 
Another advantage claimed as resulting from the use of 
the Goodenough shoe is that the weight of the horse is 
mainly sustained by the crust, and the shoe is so contrived 
that no pressure is put on the sole. I would ask what sys¬ 
tem of shoeing is in operation where the weight is not so con¬ 
trived ? or, again, who would think of fitting a shoe so that 
it should take its bearing upon the sole. 
In the next place the advocates of the new system attach 
great importance to the circumstanee of frog pressure, as 
produeed by the Goodenough method of shoeing. I am 
certainly no advocate for mutilating the frog, as is frequently 
done by overparing it, at the same time it remains as yet to be 
proved by more lengthened experience whether or no the 
frog is capable of bearing, without injury, the full exposure 
of its surfaee upon our rugged macadamized roads. As regards 
the rest to the tendons, expansion of the foot, and healthy 
deposit of sound horn,’^ which it is affirmed must result from 
the adoption of the new system of shoeing, I cannot at all 
see in what w^ay any rest is given to the tendons by that sys¬ 
tem; and in referenee to expansion of the foot, *1 should cer¬ 
tainly look for contraction as a result more likely to follow 
its adoption, in consequenee of the nail-holes being placed 
so near to the heels on both the outer and the inner portions 
of the shoe; nor can I understand how it can have the effect 
of increasing the deposit of horn. 
It is further asserted that the new system will ^Gn due 
time remedy contraction, corns, split hoof, false quarter, or 
sanderack and thrushes.’^ I cannot but think that had the 
real causes of those diseases been duly considered by the 
writer of the pamphlet in question, so rash and extravagant 
an assertion would have been withheld; as doubtless would 
also another to the effeet that springing of the knees and 
shrinking of the shoulders are prevented by the use of the new 
shoe,—those being results which I cannot admit to be con¬ 
sequent upon the process of shoeing, by whatsoever method it 
may be performed. We are further informed that ^Ghe per¬ 
nicious practice of burning on the shoe—a practice which 
destroys the vitality of the horn—is entirely obviated, as the 
Goodenough horse-shoe is made to a true form and fitted 
to the foot cold.-’^ I am strongly of opinion that in fitting 
a shoe a moderate amount of careful burning is productive 
