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 Rh CHAPTER VI.

YOUATT ON THE WEIGHT OF SHOES—AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE ‘ST. JULIEN’—‘AN OUNCE AT THE HEEL TELLS MORE THAN A POUND ON THE BACK’—LUNETTE SHOE OR TIP OF LAFOSSE—DOUGLAS ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE CRUST—MILES ON EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION.

has of late led our ladies into the habit of wearing very high heels to their boots; and, to make things worse, they are placed, not under the ball of the heel, but ahead of it—that is to say, in a part which was not intended by nature to take their full weight at every step. Medical men tell us that since this became the fashion, hysteria is largely on the increase, and also that many other illnesses may be traced to the same cause. Fortunately, ladies can take off their boots when they come indoors (and they avail themselves of the chance), to put on others of different construction. From this the horse is debarred.

Medical men, as physiologists, are able to judge to a great extent as to the value or non-value of the foregoing remarks upon the horse’s foot and its shoe; they, at least, have no excuse for tacitly admitting that grooms and farriers should have any advantage