232 LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
knocker-on is driving, and prevent pricking, &c. ? How many are 
there who conld take the hammer and drive the nails himself without 
injuring the foot some time or other (just as the common workman 
does), in spite of the great knowledge lie possesses of the structures, 
&c. ? I am afraid, indeed I am sure, the large majority would have 
to answer the whole of these questions negatively. Then they say 
we are there to direct how everything ought to be done. Granted. 
And how often are your directions really required in the regular 
course of every day shoeing ? And how are your directions fol¬ 
lowed and carried out if they do not coincide with the man’s own 
ideas, unless you stand over him and see them properly obeyed ? 
Very seldom indeed. I contend that shoeing is entirely a mechani¬ 
cal operation, and only requires practice. I really believe that if 
you educated a smith to thoroughly understand the nature and 
structure of the organ placed in his hands, you would undoubtedly 
make him a worse workman. There is no doubt his ignorance is 
bliss. He knows if the nail goes in a certain direction he pricks 
and lames the animal, and that in due course it will suppurate, &c., 
if not attended to, and to the best of his ability he strives to avoid 
the accident. What more could you require of him, even if you 
made him a veterinary surgeon entirely ? Nothing. Therefore I 
say the veterinary surgeon should take his own position and the 
smith his. 
Where is your great expenditure caused ? In your forge. Where 
are you robbed and annoyed most ? In your forge. Where are 
you associated with the lowest of the low, and unavoidably so at 
times? In your forge. Where does your profit come from ? Not 
from your forge. Then why, I ask, gentlemen, be hampered with 
such a monstrous evil ? You may say why don’t I set the example, 
and close my forge? Simply because I think it is incumbent upon 
those who are at the head, as it were, of our profession in the 
various towns in which forges are kept to first set the example; and 
I know this—1 should be one of the first to follow. I contend, 
and alw'ays have done, and always shall, that the association with 
the forge is a drag upon the upward tendency of our profession in 
the scale of society. How much better would it be if, instead of 
being obliged to direct a lot of ignorant people, and try to get them 
to render unto you what is yours in common honesty, you could sit 
down in your leisure moments, improve your mind, and keep up 
with the times’^in knowledge, &c., and thereby fit yourself more per¬ 
fectly, not only for your profession, but also for that position in 
society to which, I think, we are justly entitled, and which I hope 
to live to see the profession claim. 
I feel persuaded that these opinions are gaining ground every 
day. There is a good case in point in the Messrs. Mavor, of 
London, who at one time, perhaps, had one of the largest shoe¬ 
ing businesses in the kingdom. Plow have they managed to divide 
themselves from the forge? By nothing but a determination to no 
longer be kept back from a position to which they were entitled, 
and which they could not obtain as long as they were associated 
