Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/353

 the sides. A horse furnished with such a chaussure could not walk four steps without mutilating himself and falling. What is more, we have hippo-sandals the two flanks of which are united above, and which could never make a shoe for a horse, even if the animal were standing still. . . . . . . When we see the same ground containing hippo-sandals and nailed shoes, it must be evident that the first were not destined for the feet of horses. It has been said that at least they might be employed for horses' feet in a bad condition; but besides the impossibility of using many of them for any such purpose, and which is obvious enough, we have discovered in our excavations a shoe intended for a diseased foot, one of the branches of which has been enlarged to an extraordinary degree, so as to cover one-half of the sole.'

Veterinary surgeon Duplessis, of the French artillery, likewise announces his disapproval of the name and the use given to these contrivances. Referring to the opinions of the Abbé Cochet and M. Megnin, he says: 'These gentlemen justly deny the possibility of these strangely formed bits of irons ever having been placed under horses' feet. I am of their opinion, for everything is opposed to such an admission. The lightness and freedom required for rapid paces would prevent their employment in this way, as well as the impossibility of fixing on a round flat foot a heavy ill-balanced machine like this. The example afforded by all the human foot-covers would show them (the Romans) that it was at least indispensable that it should resemble in shape the plantar surface of the foot.'