Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/527

 ignorance of the design of nature, and maltreatment of the foot, every part of which is made for some purpose or other—though he does not happen to know it. ... I suppose it will be universally assented to, that whatever method of shoeing approaches nearest to the law of nature, such is likely to be the most perfect method.' Agreeing perfectly with Lafosse as to the grave injury inflicted on the feet by paring the soles and frog, and opening the heels, he is careful in explaining the functions of these parts. 'The frog, together with the bars, occupying the hinder part of the foot, is designed by nature to distend and keep it open, which, when cut away, suffer the heels, the quarters, and the coronary ring to become contracted, whereby another lameness is produced, which shall be treated in its proper place.'

This lameness is the 'navicular disease,' supposed to be first described by Mr Turner of London some thirty years ago. Osmer distinctly mentions it: 'I have seen many instances of sudden lameness brought on horses in hunting and in racing, by a false step, which have continued lame their whole life-time; and upon examination, I have found the ligaments of the nut-bone (os naviculare) rendered useless for want of timely assistance and knowledge of the cause; from hence the cartilages of the same have been sometimes ossified, and the bones of the foot have been sometimes wasted, and sometimes enlarged, it being no uncommon thing to meet a horse whose feet are not fellows, the natural form of the injured foot being generally altered hereby; and nothing can contribute more to such an accident than the unequal pressure of the foot in our modern concave shoe.' Elsewhere he speaks of the