Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/75

 cymbali instar ad solum resonat.’ A bad horse was known by the inferior quality of its hoofs and their softness, ‘mollis ungulas;’ while a good one should have them ‘carneæ pleneæ.’ It will be observed that he refers to Xenophon; he also follows him in recommending a stable paved with large round stones to harden the feet. In this work, he mentions every article of horse-furniture then in use, but is silent with regard to that for the hoofs.

In 1827, an edict of the Emperor Diocletian, supposed to have been promulgated about. 300, was discovered. It fixes the maximum rate of wages and price of provisions, and two passages in it give us an idea, not only of the functions and emoluments of the individual who ministered to the requirements of sick animals, but also affords another proof that the hoofs of solipedes were not shod. The mulomedicus who clipped the hair and trimmed the hoofs, was to receive for each animal six denarii; and for currying and cleansing the head, twenty denarii. Had shoeing been known or practised, it must have been mentioned in such an edict as this. And here we may notice, in connection with this hoof-paring among the Romans, that Bonanni has given drawings of two iron objects found at Rome, near the Castra Peregrina, which Montfauçon reproduces as ancient Roman instruments of farriery. One, he notes, is like the present boutoir or boutavan of the French maréchal