Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/573

 termed a re-introduction of Mr Turner's 'unilateral' shoe, modified by Bourgelat's and Goodwin s bent-up or curved toe. The method of shoeing and the shoe itself is founded entirely, like that of Mr Youatt's, on the theory of the lateral expansion of the foot and the descent of the sole.

The horny crust, according to Mr Miles, is 'elastic throughout its whole extent, and yielding to the weight of the horse, allows the horny sole to descend, whereby much inconvenient concussion to the internal parts of the foot is avoided; but if a large portion of the circumference of the foot be fettered by iron and nails, it is obvious that that portion at least cannot expand as before; and the beautiful and efficient apparatus for effecting this necessary elasticity being no longer allowed to act by reason of these restraints, becomes altered in structure; and the continued operation of the same causes in the end circumscribes the elasticity to those parts alone where no nails have been driven; giving rise to a train of consequences destructive to the soundness of the foot, and fatal to the usefulness of the horse.' Serious anatomical and physiological mistakes occur in this section of this work, and nothing is said as to the function of the frog. The sole is made to ascend and descend as the weight was applied to or removed from it. 'This descending property of the sole calls for our especial consideration in directing the form of the shoe; for if the shoe be so formed that the horny sole rests upon it, it cannot descend lower, and the sensible sole above, becoming squeezed between the edges of the coffin-bone and the horn, causes inflammation, and perhaps abscess. The effect of this squeezing of the sensible sole is most commonly witnessed at the