SHOEING OF OUR CAVALRY HORSES. 391 
surgeon’s duty is executed, it may appear as no more than a 
joke thoughtlessly got up to tickle the mental palates of 
those excitable patrons who are always haunted by some 
public disaster, or one of those characteristic, sensational, 
wide-sw’eeping, and haphazard assertions made without suf¬ 
ficient care or data, and quite independent of facts. But to 
the many who crowd beyond this enlightened circle, it must, 
indeed, appear a most lamentable and reprehensible state of 
affairs, and one so productive of great public loss, as to call 
for instant investigation. And not only will it wear this 
aspect, but it will also tend to the belief, that while the 
veterinary art has been advancing in the civil world, in the 
military it has, in this respect, remained stationary since 
the infancy of our noble and humane profession. 
Let me assure those, however, that such is not the case; 
that these alarming assertions are quite without foundation; 
that the principles which are published, and which guide 
and give uniformity to the system of army horse-shoeing are 
as perfect as the present state of the art w ill admit, and if 
they owe their introduction to the talented pioneer of British 
veterinary surgery, they prove that he does not merit such 
obloquy or utter condemnation, and that he was not a whit 
behind those who now so severely do honour to his labours. 
The number of horses rendered unserviceable from shoeing 
in the army is, 1 have every reason for asserting, infinitely 
small, and to my certain knowledge few r , if any of the cases are 
either preventible or curable by the better system of shoeing 
which the writer inculcates. The regimental veterinary 
surgeon is responsible for the shoeing of the horses entrusted 
to his care, and though an adherence to the established regu¬ 
lations is strictly enjoined for the sake of uniformity, and to 
guard against the pet vagaries of the inexperienced , yet a lame 
horse is a medical case, and can be treated as such. So that 
to preserve efficiency and avert loss, when horses require a 
particular description of shoe, or a modification in the method 
of applying it, the veterinary surgeon is permitted to exercise 
his judgment either in the prevention or cure of lameness, 
and that within no prescribed limit. From month’s end to 
month’s end I have not a single case of lameness caused by 
shoeing, in a corps of nearly four hundred horses, and many 
of the animals have been twelve and fourteen years in the 
ranks, and yet have beautiful feet. In regard to this, I should 
not like to consider my regiment at all an exceptional one. 
But I trust I have written enough on this subject to call 
attention to the injustice that may be inflicted on a class of 
men, or on a system, by random assertions, which will not 
