Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/493

 pour le bien être;' yet adds, that, in his time, kings and people of quality could shoe horses: 'On a vu, de notre temps, des rois sçavoir forger un fer; et il est peu de personnes de qualité qui ne sachent brocher des clous, pour s'en servir dans la nécessité.' And he now complains that the little progress that had been made in a knowledge of this branch of veterinary science 'has maintained it in a state of debasement which even affects the other branches;' farriery, when he wrote, was 'un métier, ou une certaine routine, que ces ouvriers apprenaient chez des mâitres dépourvus de tous principes de leur art.'

In a brief historical notice like the present, an analysis of this treatise will not be expected; and we can only give some abridged notices from the translation made by Sir William Hope, and published in London, in 1706.

Speaking of a journey, he says: 'Many horses as soon as unbridled, instead of eating, lay themselves down to rest, because of the great pain they have in their feet, so that a man is apt to think them sick; but if he look to their eyes, he will see they are lively and good; and if he offer meat to them as they are lying, they will eat it very willingly; yet if he handle their feet he will find them extremely hot, which will discover to him that it is in that part they suffer. You must therefore observe if their shoes do not rest upon their soles.' And again: 'When you are arrived from a journey, immediately draw the two heel-nails of the fore-feet, and if it be a large shoe, then four. And two or three days after you may blood him in the neck, and feed him for ten or twelve