Morbid ascent flexible parts below, I need not now dwell upon;

of the coffin

bone, and cor- but with respect to the navicular joint lameness, I

responding

its shape by

adaptation of beg to refer you to my papers on that most formidable and prevalent disease.

growth.

Hunting horses should, perhaps, be exceptions to this method of nailing, from their known liability to cast their shoes, even when nailed all round; and at my first view into this matter, I did think that horses with flat feet and low weak heels would also prove exceptions; but experience justifies me in stating, that there are many feet of this description much improved by the same plan, observing this slight difference, viz. the insertion of nine instead of eight nails, and the extra nail to be driven towards the inside quarter.

Gentlemen, notwithstanding the profound respect which I entertain for Mr. Coleman, viewing him as a teacher of the veterinary art, unequalled perhaps in Europe, I have occasion to differ in opinion with this high authority, respecting the descent of the sole. Mr. C. lays great stress, both in his Treatise on the Foot and in his Lectures, on the difference in the degree of descent of various parts of the sole, ascribing very great movement to that portion of sole towards the heal or seat of corn; whilst he contends there is little or no descent of sole towards the toe. Hence it appears, that Mr. Coleman's theory of the yielding of the coffin bone obliquely backwards and downwards, the descent

of the sole principally towards the heels, and expansion of the quarters instead of the entire organ, is so accommodating to the present pernicious mode of nailing or fettering the foot on both sides, that I fear the Royal Veterinary College will be the last to admit the new system of side-nailing.

My brother, Mr. Thomas Turner, of Croydon, has practised this unfettered plan of shoeing to a great extent; and much credit is due to him for the zeal and assiduity with which he has put it to the test; and I have his authority for stating, that the owners of the horses and persons concerned have given the method their unqualified approbation.

There is one drawback or alloy, and that the only one; but it is of an appalling kind, particularly in these hard times; viz. it will cut off our supply of best patients, by the prevention of lameness: our best consolation will be found in the superior usefulness of the animal.

I feel that as much might be urged in favour of a radical reform in the shoeing art as would usefully occupy the attention of the Society for half a session; but for the present I shall conclude my paper with a few remarks on the mechanical execution of the plan I have recommended. Now, it fortunately The simplicity happens, that next in importance to the principle shoeing in its practical appliitself, is the simplicity of its practical application. cation a great I need not remind you, that all the inventive faculties tion. of Mr. Bracy Clark and others have been taxed for

a series of years, and have contributed ingenious

of side-nail

recommenda

The form of

shoe.

Clips indispensable.

Number of nails.

contrivances, by which the shoe yields to the foot; most of them admirable in principle, but incompatible with practice. It is now quite obvious that, their mistake, together with a prodigious sacrifice of valuable time, is owing to the complexity of their efforts in making the iron shoe to spread with the foot, which is altogether useless and uncalled for, as the foot can dilate with much less embarrassment by itself, the ordinary shoe being affixed, except with the omission of the nails in the inside quarter.

When I say the ordinary or common shoe, I mean that well-wrought piece of iron commonly applied in the principal forges in London and its vicinity, under the appellation of the seated shoe, of equal thickness toe and heel. The flat margin of the foot surface of this shoe, on which the crust rests, should be strictly level, particularly on the inside quarter, as any burr or edge would tend to impede the expansion of the hoof. Clips, judiciously placed, are important auxiliaries to this mode of nailing in fact, they are indispensable; but two only are necessary to each shoe; the clip in front I prefer in the centre of the shoe, rather than the inside toe; the other on the outside quarter, immediately anterior to the heel nail. The number of nails not to be less than seven, nor to exceed nine, and to be thus disposed of; six in the outside quarter and toe of the foot, and two in the inside toe; no nail-hole to be punched immediately in the

Manner of in

nails.

centre of the toe of the shoe, thereby avoiding any inconvenience which might arise from the joint pressure of the clip and nail at this part; but the first nail-hole to be punched close to it, at the out- troducing the side toe; and the remaining five as far distant from each other as possible, without the last nail approaching nearer the outside heel than is consistent with the safety of its insertion; the first nail in the inside toe to be punched full an inch from the outer edge of the clip.

sole.

In regard to the paring of the soles with this Paring of the method of shoeing, I seldom deviate from the usual mode with those horses which have been shod several years; but with colts, and young horses recently brought into work, I am just now prosecuting some experiments, not yet concluded, but which have already afforded me good grounds for hoping that the shoeing art will admit of a still further simplification by the side-nailing.

on colts' feet,

with side

In the experiments in question with the colts' Experiments feet, I never suffer the hoofs to exceed three weeks' in conjunction growth without removing the shoes, and moderately nailing. shortening the toes with the rasp, and slightly lowering the crust with the same instrument; but as to a drawing-knife, or knife of any description, their hoofs have not yet experienced either the use or abuse of any such instruments. One end of the rasp has been ground to a blunt chisel edge, with which a few flakes of sole have occasionally been

78 HORSE-SHOEING SIMPLIFIED AND UNFETTERED.

The use of the lifted off, and the colts, have, as yet, gone on drawing knife superseded. well in work for several months. Their frogs have never yet suffered any diminution, except from natural detrition in meeting the ground, or other hard bodies. The importance of this improved system of shoeing in racing establishments, among the two-year-old candidates in particular, must, I conceive, prove of the first importance.

From attentively watching the feet of young horses which have never been shod by any method except the side nailing, I have had the satisfaction of observing one circumstance, which certainly I did flatter myself would result from it, which is, Spontaneous the capability of the horny sole exfoliating of itself, as in the unshod foot, thereby preserving its thinness and flexibility, instead of becoming morbidly thick and strong. This I conceive is attributable to the unrestrained motion of the sole, which the improved shoeing admits.

exfoliation of

the horny sole.

Having suggested these hints with respect to the use of the drawing-knife being superseded in colts' feet, I shall conclude, gentlemen, by begging you to remember, that I do not pledge myself to shew that this instrument ought to be discarded; but I have hazarded thus much to induce the profession at large to extend the inquiry into this interesting subject.