276 
ELASTICITY OF THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
there were masses of soft cancer in the spleen, and in the 
lung also were several large nodules, as well as the smaller 
ones found in the other specimen. 
“Dr. Wale Hicks said that in his specimen no distinct 
spots were found. The matter was uniformly infiltrated.” 
ON THE ELASTICITY OF THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
By W. Ernes, M.R.C.Y.S. London. 
The subject of the elasticity of the horse’s foot remains, 
up to the present time, an unsettled and disputed point, not 
only in this country, but also on the Continent. It was 
first treated of by M. Lafosse, sen., in his f New Practice of 
Shoeing/ published in 1754, and afterwards the subject was 
further elucidated by his son, whose manual was published in 
1766. The MM. Lafosse, however, only drew attention to 
the flexibility of the heels. Lafosse, sen., says, at page 86, 
“ the heel comes in contact with the shoe, for the hoof is 
flexible /’ at page 101 he again says, “ the thinner the shoe 
at the heel the greater is the flexibility of the hoof at the same 
part.” At page 203 of the f Manual’ we read, “It is true 
that there is an old prejudice that, to protect the heels from 
the hard and paved roads, the shoe should be long at the 
same parts, and cover the point of the heels of the foot; but 
when it is suggested to the partisans of this system of shoe¬ 
ing that the iron on which the heels bear is as hard as the 
pavement, they answer that they take care to raise the heels 
of the shoes so that there is no bearing on the heels, which 
certainly is the case, to the extent, as they clearly show you, 
that the blade of a knife can be easily passed between the 
shoe and the heel of the foot, but this is only while the foot 
is held up. When the foot is on the ground and the other 
foot is held up, tell them to pass the blade of the knife in 
that position, and they will find that there is no space left, 
even to introduce anything as thin as a beaten gold leaf. They 
believe that it is the shoe that bends, and consequently put 
on a thicker shoe; but the effect is the same, and they are 
quite confounded on finding that, on taking up the foot, the 
same distance between the heel and the shoe exists, which 
could not be perceived when the foot was on the ground.” 
Bourgelat, the founder of the first veterinary schools, in 
his work on shoeing, published 1771, after having described 
