Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/582

 theory of Bracy Clark, whose ideas of the functions of the horse's foot became at last so exaggerated, that he could not devise any mode of shoeing that would not inflict injury on that organ. The treatise we have just noticed cannot, therefore, be said to afford us any signs of improvement in the art of shoeing, except in the matter of reducing the number of nails; and is chiefly composed of materials derived from various sources, some of them not very reliable.

It is a pleasure in turning to the next work, written by Colonel Fitzwygram, to find a more rational and common-sense method of managing the foot and shoeing it. This treatise, founded as it is on the long experience and enlightened observation of Army Veterinary Surgeon Hallen, is perhaps the best on shoeing which this century has produced. It reminds one very much of Lafosse's master-piece, and indeed it only repeats the truths that able veterinarian first promulgated with regard to the propriety and method of maintaining the horse's foot in a sound condition. The leading principle is the entire conservation of sole and frog, which are not to be foolishly tampered with, and the maintenance of the wall or crust in all its integrity. The shoe recommended is that proposed by Mr Goodwin, with the single exception, perhaps, that instead of the upper surface following the concavity of the sole, it was to be flat. The ground surface, with the bentup toe, was the same. This treatise, which, so far as the management of the foot is concerned, is calculated to do much good, is yet somewhat marred by an error that, though apparently unimportant, yet in reality is not so.