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going down h 11 , but not lame at all going up hill. Having observed this peculiarity 
for several miles, he began to speculate upon the cause ; and by carefully examining 
the action of the horses’ feet, he discovered it. The blacksmith had pared the hoof on 
the wrong principle,—cutting it close where it out to have been left thick, and leaving 
it unpared where nature constantly produces a redundancy. He tried his hand at 
lemedymg the mistake. He cut boldly at the parts that were in excess, and the lame¬ 
ness was cuied ! A few judicious cuts with a sharp knife, and a shoe adapted to the 
natural growth of the hoof,—this is all there is of the Dunbar system, which was elabor¬ 
ated by the mystical Alexander after some years of observation and experiment, suggest¬ 
ed by this incident. He found many cases of lameness of years’ standing could be cured 
ladically and almost instantly by simply paring the hoof aright and altering the shoe 
“We have in New York an enthusiast on the structure of the horse,—Mr. Robert 
Bonner, whose stable contain six of the fastest trotting horses in the world. He was 
led to study the anatomy of the hoise by endeavoring to get at the reason why some 
horses can trot in 2-20 farther than an ordinary nag can in five minutes. He was cu¬ 
rious to know just where the trotting talent lies ; and his led to other inquiries. 
Hearing by chance of Mr. Dunbar’s discovery, he investigated it most thoroughly, and 
came to the conclusion that the Dunbar system was founded on the eternal nature of 
things. I suppose that, during the last three years, Mr. Bonner has, with his own 
hands, paied the hoofs of moie than fifty horses on the Dunbar plan, and thereby 
cured a dozen cases of lameness, supposed to be incurable. In his great desire to test 
the discover), he has tin's eled a hundred miles sometimes for the sole purpose of hav¬ 
ing a lame horse shod in the Dunbar style, very frequently paring the hoofs himself. 
Recentl) the discoseiei has been amongst us, and his system, after having been adopt¬ 
ed in several of the largest stables in the United States, was introduced into the 
army ; but as usual, his success was damage to other men, particularly to the proprie¬ 
tors of a patent horseshoe, which Mr. Dunbar was compelled to say was not made in 
accoidance with the eternal nature of things. Hence a patent horseshoe lobby ' 
Hence Mr. Fernando Wood’s strange amendment. Mr. Dunbar’s friends rallied, how¬ 
ever, in time to enlighten the House and no harm was done.” 
This is an enoi. dheie was some harm done ; for the appropriation to Mr. Dun- 
bai w as 1 educed by more than one-half. I here is, however, no comment in relation 
to this article. Who was wrong? Certainly not Mr. Fernando Wood. 
And I doubt if any of the veterinarians of these days knew that in Congress there 
was a gentleman, who could distinguish between true veterinary knowledge and that of 
a Mr. Dunbar, whose appointment we find condemned in the minutes of the United 
States Veterinary Medical Association as follows Moved and seconded, That the 
United States Veterinary Medical Association as a body protests against the appoint¬ 
ment by the general government, through the recommendation of General Grant, of 
Mr. Dunbar as a Clinical Lecturer to the army veterinary surgeons and farriers, for an 
alleged discovery of a mode of treatment of the diseases of horses’ feet, the operation 
being no discovery but a regeneration of an obsolete idea, and worthy of the attention 
and patronage of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, it being an ev¬ 
idence of both ignorance and barbarity. Furthermore, Mr. Dunbar has no claims 
whatever to the title of veterinary surgeon, either by education or professional associa¬ 
tion.”. 
Duiing the same year an important appeal was made to Congress by Dr. John 
Busteed, then working with enthusiasm as President of the. New-York College of 
