Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/108

 Heusinger, whose profound acquaintance with ancient literature, particularly with that pertaining to the early Greek and Roman hippiatrists, few will dispute, declares that shoeing was not known to the Romans; that the writings of the ancient veterinarians are full of remedies for preventing and remedying undue wear of the horn; and that old authors were well acquainted with the use of shoes for diseased feet, but never make mention of the modern iron shoes in the treatment of such.

Mr Rich asserts of the soleæ ferreæ, that ‘they were a protection for the feet of mules employed in draught, intended to answer the same object as the modern horseshoe, though differing materially in its quality and manner of fixing; for the concurrent testimony of antiquity, both