Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/574

 angle of the inner heel, where the descending heel of the coffin-bone, forcibly pressing the vascular sole upon the horny sole, ruptures a small blood-vessel, and produces what is called a corn.' It is, however, in his remarks on paring of the horse's foot that his erroneous views of its physiology are shown, and his directions for the performance of that operation are marked by a singular absence of reasoning, unless it be that which was founded on the descending properties of the sole.

As this work has, perhaps, passed through as many editions as Mr Youatt's, and as it treats entirely of shoeing, claiming for itself the teaching of 'how to keep the foot sound,' we have every inducement to inquire into his practice; influencing, as it must have done, the art of farriery in this country to a very considerable extent. We shall then be able to pronounce how far the usual abuses had been mitigated and the art improved; though it will be apparent that his principles are those laid down by Youatt. 'The operation of paring out the foot is a matter requiring both skill and judgment, and is, moreover, a work of some labour when properly performed. It will be found that the operator errs much oftener by removing too little than too much; at least it is so with parts that ought to be removed, which are sometimes almost as hard and unyielding as a flint-stone, and in their most favourable state require considerable exertion to cut through. The frog, on the other hand, offers so little resistance to the knife, and presents such an even, smooth, clean-looking surface when cut through, that it requires more philosophy than falls to the share of most smiths to resist the temptation to slice it away, despite a