94 LETTER FROM MR. DRAY RELATIVE TO SHOEING. 
In tracing the various parts of plants it has been shown 
that all may be referred to the leaf as a type. This morpho¬ 
logical law was propounded by Linnseus and Wolff, but it is 
to Goethe we owe the full enunciation of it. Vegetable 
morphology^ the study of forms^ or the reference of the forms 
of the parts of plants to the leaf, is now the basis of organo¬ 
graphy ; and it will be observed that in considering the 
various organs this has been kept constantly in view. The 
calyx, corolla, stamens and pistils, are only modifications 
of the leaf, adapted for peculiar functions. It is not meant 
that they were originally leaves and were afterwards trans¬ 
formed ; but that they are formed of the same elements and 
arranged upon the same plan, and that in the changes whicli 
they undergo, and the relation which they bear to each other, 
they follow the same laws as leaves do. The different parts 
of the flower may be changed into each other, or into true 
leaves; or, in other words, the cellular papillse from which 
they are formed are capable of being developed in different 
ways, according to laws which are still unknown. These 
changes may take place from without inwards by an ascend¬ 
ing or direct metamorphosis, as in the case of petals be¬ 
coming stamens ; or from within outwards by descending or 
retrograde metamorphoses, as when stamens become petals.^^ 
LETTER FROM EDWARD COLEMAN DRAY, RE¬ 
LATIVE TO SHOEING. 
Leeds; Jan. 1869. 
Gentlemen, —Since the Times of December 10th, 1868, 
saw fit to devote two of its columns in giving an exposition of 
the Goodenough Method of Shoeing Horses,"’^ 1 have been 
repeatedly asked by my patrons, why the art of shoeing has 
been so long neglected, and why the veterinary surgeon does 
not grapple with the subject ? I never had a forge conneeted 
with my practice, but there are many members of our pro¬ 
fession who have, and it is to them that I appeal for suggestions 
to produce a reformation in this important branch. 1 have 
endeavoured for years to give advice to blacksmiths, as 
shoers of horses, but I regret to say with few good results. 
Unless better educated men are employed to shoe horses, and 
equivalent prices are charged, I despair of seeing any great 
improvement effected. Still the subject is of sufficient im¬ 
portance to warrant its ventilation. 
To the Editors of the ‘ Veterinarian J 
