Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/278

* HORSERADISH. 238 HORSESHOEING. HtJOT OK B0H8ERAUI8B. HORSERADISH [Cochlcaria Armoracia). A perennial litib of the natural orclur C'ruoifersp, with lung, cylindrical wliito roots of strong pungcnce, due to a volatile oil wliitli resembles mustard oil. It lias Mower-stems about two feel hij;h. larye, much- veined, oblonj;, crenate root -leaves on long stalks, and elongate- lanceolate stem-leaves. It grows in damp meadows in the middle and south of Kurojie, is natural- ized in many places in America, and is cultivated for the sake of its roots, which are scraped or grated down and mi.ved in salads or used as a condiment. Horse- radish-root is used also in medi- cine as a stimulant, and is often useful in promoting digestion; it is also regarded as an antiscor- butic, and is sometimes applied as a rubefacient instead of mus- tard. Since horseradish does not produce seed, it is generally prop- agated by root-cuttings planted in rich, moist soil and treated as an annual. The crowns are also sometimes used, but they do not produce as good roots. Horse- radish "is very dilTicult to eradicate from the ground in whiih it has become established, as al- most any portion of the root will grow. HORSERADISH - TREE ( Moriiiga ptcrygo- sjierma). A tree of the natural order Moringca;, native of India, and intriKluced into the West Indies and other tropical countries, in many of which it is cultivated for its fruit, which is either pickled or eaten as a vegetable. The fresh root and the leaves suggest the odor and flavor of horseradish — hence the common name. Its winged, triangular, globose, bitter seeds furnish about 30 per cent, of a bland, inodorous, nearly colorless fixed oil of long-keeping qualities which resembles olive oil and is similarly used. At a temperature of about .32" F. a deposition of its solid fats occirs. and the remaining clear fluid is removed for use in the extraction of perfumes from flowers, and the lubrication of delicate ma- chinery. The oil is known as ben-oil or behen- oil. a name whioh is said to lx> 7nisapplied. since it is claimed properly to lielong to the oil ob- tained from the wingless seeds of Moringa aptera, a tree native to Abyssinia and Arabia. The oil of neither species should l)e confoimded with beneoil. which is derived from the seeds of Sesa- mum indioim. See Sesamvm. HORSESHOE BAT. See Bat. HORSESHOE, or HORSEFOOT, CRAB. See KiN(-< H.vn. HORSESHOE FALL. The name given to the portion of Niagara Tails included between Goat Island and the Canadian shore, also called the Canadian Fall. See N'iagaea Riveb and Falls. HORSESHOEING. An artificial protection of some kind for the horse's foot has been well said to be "one of the penalties which civilization inexorably exacts." When it is remembered that every time that a horse is shod it implies damage to the foot and that the best and most expert shoeing of necessity inflicts some injury, the im- portance of horseshoeing to the horse-owner is evident. All authorities agree "that there is no such thing as absolute imnuinity from un evil which must always exist in inverse ratio to the skill displayed in the execution of tiie work." The value of the domesticated horse to man is in his lleetness and strength. It was early iliscov- ered, however, that his usefulness was limited by the condition of his feet, so that the history of horseshoeing is practically an account of the various devices tiiat have led up to the modern shoe. The entire weight of tli« body, as well as the pressure of every muscular cITort, is largidy con- centrated in the feet. T!ie nails or claws and their corresponding digits of other animals have in solipeds disappeared from atrophy, with the exception of the middle digit, which became much more developed and surrounded by an hypertro- phicd nail called the hoof, the structure of which is desifTiied to meet every nnpiirement of the ani- mal except thos«> that have devolved upon it since its domestication, such as constant traveling over hard roads or stony ground. Should the horn of the hoof be woni a«ay, the structures which it was designed to protect are of necessity injured, the animal becomes lame, unable to work, and consequently <-eases to have any value. According to Diodorus, Cinnamus, and Appian entire armies were occasionally jeopardized tlirough the break- ing down of their horses by reason of worn hoofs. Xenoplum sought to solve the problem by making the hoofs hard and tough : and from other (!reck and Roman writers we learn that resort was had to socks or sandals {ippopodis, embalai, carbati- tuii. solea, etc.). These were clumsy as well as ineffectual means of protection, but, strangely enough, they have their modern counterpart in the straw sandals still to be seen in various parts of the .Japanese Kmpire. According to Beckmann, licitriifir zur (Ivschirhlf drr Erfindungen {I.K?ip- zig. 1792). it was greiitly to be doubted whether the Romans practiced, as was alleged, the art of shoeing, by attaching a metal plate or rim to the horse's foot : a doubt strengthened by the fact that on no monuments or sculptures (so far as was then known) in which horses appear could any evidence of shoeing be scon. On the other hand, a bas-relief dating from the second century, at pres- ent in the museum of Avignon, shows a chariot drawn by horses which are unmistakably shod; and Cohen in his ncicriplion drs vionnairs frap- pi'cs sows VEmpire Homain tells of a medal sup- I)osed to date from the time of Domitian com- memorating a cavalry victory upon which was a design of two horseshoes, surrounded by two twined serpents. Another coin, in the British Museum, fnmi Tarentum, about B.C. 300, is sup- posed to represent a horse being shod. Accord- ing to historical writers the horses of the Hims when they invaded Europe were shod. Some evi- dence that nail shoes were employed previous to the sixth eenturi' is perhaps supplied by ChilTlet t Mnnunicnts de la monarchle Fran^aisc), who tells of a fragment supposed to be part of a horseshoe found by him at Toumay in the tomb of Cliilderic (King of the Franks, died a.d. 481). Absolute evidence as to nail shoes in the ninth and tenth centuries is comparatively plentiful, not the least important being tlic Tar- tica Iniperntoris Lronia of Emperor Leo VI., dating from the ninth centurj'. There is no reason to doubt that the Arabs of the Hejira (A.D. 022) shod their horses with iron; while, according to the Chroniquea de Saint-Denis, Char-