352 
THE CIIAllLlEH IlOKSE-SHOE. 
up information from all available sources for preventive pur¬ 
poses. It must be complimentary to Dr. Smart to find that 
his reports have been taken as the basis of the volume on 
rinderpest which that Society has just issued for public 
guidance, and in which he is spoken of as a leading authority 
with the highest respect.* While noticing most fully the 
reports of the Royal Commission and the Edinburgh Medical 
Committee, the researches of Professors Simonds and 
Gamgee, and other authorities, British and Continental, Dr. 
Smart^s practical experiments and recommendations are the 
leading theme of the volume. The beautiful coloured illus¬ 
trations which Dr. Smart appended to his reports are also 
reproduced most faithfully. It is not less complimentary to 
Edinburgh than to Dr. Smart to find that the action taken at 
the time by the magistrates resulted in a series of experiments 
and conclusions whose importance has been recognised in so 
conspicuous a manner .—Medical Tmes. 
THE CHARLIER HORSE-SHOE. 
In France they certainly manage some things better than 
we do in England. Our forte lies in letting matters take 
their course ; the public in theory can guard its own interests, 
and every invention, whether it be intrinsically good or essen¬ 
tially worthless, has its day—the unfortunate thing in many 
instances being that a bad invention, well puffed, has a much 
better chance of success than a good one left to display its own 
merits. During the last few years we have had several novel¬ 
ties in horse shoes brought to our notice, all of them founding 
their claims to support upon the assumption that other 
methods are, in comparison, more or less pernicious in their 
influence upon the horse’s foot. Each plan has a trial, and 
succeeds to admiration, or fails beyond all hope of recovery, 
according to the temper of the individual who tries it, the 
manner of the work, or the extent to which the interests of 
the workman are implicated in the result. We are a prac¬ 
tical people, and do not trouble ourselves much about reasons ; 
if a system answ’ers our expectation, we do not lose faith in 
its value because we are told that it is unphilosophical in 
principle. Acting in this spirit, each person enjoys his owm 
opinion, and has his favourite system of shoeing, saddling, 
* First and Second Reports of the Special Committee appointed by the 
Executive Board of the New York State Agricultural Society of the Sta¬ 
tistics, Pathology, and Treatment of the Epizootic Disease known as the 
Rinderpest.” Albany, United States of America. 
