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96 discovering any incontrovertible evidence as to those who employed it having extended its usefulness by a durable armature to its vulnerable hoofs. All the authorities worthy of acceptance have been examined, and their testimony, taken as a whole, would lead to the belief that plates of iron or other metal, securely attached to the feet by nails, were not in use during the period of time over which our inquiry has extended; these authorities have been historians, agricultural and veterinary writers, and sculptors, who would, we may be almost certain, have left us ample testimony in this respect, had they been cognizant of the art. But we appear to have evidence that a very temporary and clumsy defence was resorted to, and which was more or less firmly fixed to the extremity by thongs and bands, or straps and buckles.

Unfortunately, further inquiry is rendered all but nugatory on account of the dearth of historical or other records by which one might be enabled to pursue an uninterrupted investigation towards the period when iron shoes were attached by iron nails to the feet of horses, and that such an artisan as the faber ferrarius was needed to garnish the hoofs with these now indispensable appendages. The third century saw the Roman Empire rapidly declining; successive hordes of barbarians issuing from what are designated 'the frozen loins of the north,' began to disturb the equilibrium of the western world, and to spread confusion and destruction everywhere. The Huns, originally of Tatar or Scythian origin, first made their presence felt in Europe about the middle of the 4th century, and about a hundred years later ravaged the continent far and near, under the leadership of their king,