HIPPODONOMIA, OR THE TRUE STRUCTURE, LAWS, AND ECONOMY, OF THE HORSE'S FOOT: ALSO PODOPKTHORA, OR A RUINOUS DEFECT IN THE PRINCIPLE OF THE COMMON SHOE DETECTED ; AND DEMONSTRATED BY EXPERIMENTS : with] A PROPOSITION FOR A NEW PRINCIPLE OF SHOEING, WHICH ABUNDANT PRACTICE HAS SINCE CONFIRMED. By BRACY CLARK, F. L. S. Member of the Royal Institute of France ; of the Royal Society of Berlin and Copenhagen ; Royal Agricultural Society of Stutgard ; and Honorary Member of the Natural History Society of New York, ^c. Naturam Ferro expellas usque dum mn recurret. SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED AND IMPROVED. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR ! SOLD BY T. & G. UNDERWOOD, 32, FLEET-STREET, AND E. LIMEBEER, 19, GILTSPUR-STREET, NEWGATE-STREET. 1829. [entered at stationers' hall.] Gaulter, Printer, Lovell's Court, Paternoster-Row. PREFACE. About seven years ago, whilst pursuing some experiments on the contracted feet of horses, it occurred to me that the causes usually advanced to explain this serious imperfection were not real ; and that, in fact, the accidents, carelessness, idle habits, and wanton tricks of the smith, so much inveighed against, had very little concern in its production. The efficient cause began to appear to me to lie much deeper, and to consist in the very method itself by which the shoe was affixed to the foot. To establish this opinion by the unerring evidence of experiment seemed difficult ; yet a plan for effecting this purpose shortly after suggested itself, and a subject exceedingly well fitted for its appli- cation soon offered. I have thus been enabled to place this opinion beyond the reach of doubt. A detail of those experiments will be found in the following pages ; and the train of consequences which terminate in the partial destruction of the foot, and pro- ceeding from the continued operation of the same cause. After having well considered these facts, and reflected on the great obscurity which has hitherto prevailed in this branch of vete- rinary science, I imagined that these discoveries might be worthy the attention of the public ; especially as, the cause of this chief defect being now understood, little would remain in the art of shoeing that did not admit of easy solution. I further hoped that, by doing this, I might excite such efforts as would crown with success the attempt to remove the evil, by introducing shoes of a different construction. The few experiments which I have been able to make lead me to conjecture that it cannot be long ere this will be accomplished. Whatever may be the result in regard to this iv PREFACE. conjecture, the clear and intelligible exhibition of the cause of so much mischief and suffering, cannot be of trifling importance ; for men are not likely to endeavour to avoid that, of the danger of which they are not sensible. And I have now the satisfaction of observing in this second edition, the first having been published about twenty years ago, that this conjecture has been fully verified, and more than one shoeing establishment is now in extensive ope- ration in this metropolis, giving, by a yielding shoe, relief to hundreds of horses from these cruel and ruinous measures. The present method of shoeing was, I apprehend, first introduced about twelve or thirteen hundred years ago, and has continued to this day without any very material changes in it, and apparently without any suspicions being entertained of the fact which I am about to expose, at least any consistent demonstrative evidence of it, as far as my knowledge extends ; the obvious abuses in the practice of this art having chiefly attracted the notice of those who have written on these subjects. Tenderness before, exists among horses in different degrees so universally, that every man accustomed to riding looks for it, and uses his precautions accordingly ; nay, so frequent is it, that it is regarded by some as almost natural to the animal ; and it is also a matter which the knowing ones in horse-flesh, as they are some- times termed, are not displeased with : they pick up a cheap horse that has fallen down, or been sold with loss, on account of his tripping dangerously — one which, from his high value, they could not otherwise obtain ; and by severity of bitting, and by tormenting him with the whip, or spur, or both, (continually inflicting pain, or supporting the apprehension of it,) they conceal, and overcome as it were, the suffering of his feet, and escape the mischiefs to which others, using means less cruel, might be exposed. Such is the mer- ciless system which practice has taught them for rendering useful horses so mutilated. And many also, in the superior conditions of life, are frequently expending large sums of money in order to obtain the healthful and agreeable services of these animals, in riding on PREFACE. V horseback, or being drawn in a carriage ; yet are they but too fre- quently, in a little time, owing to the difficulties thrown in their way, obliged to abandon them from their almost perpetual interruptions, accidents, or vexations, and this from causes they are altogether unable to understand or contend against, and which will be seen chiefly to arise from the defective principles and injurious effects of the shoeing, and of which stable-men and smiths take advantage, and increase their power, and this without understanding, as they are supposed to do, the true source of these difficulties. I may also remark, that in writing this treatise, it has not been easy to find language to express these things ; for, hitherto, the language of disguise has been purposely used to conceal and cloak them from public view, and to turn away and divert the attention. In determining these matters by actual experiment, there will be found some novelty, as experiments have not before been introduced into this art ; nor was it even supposed to be susceptible of elu- cidation by such means ; presumptuous opinions, or more frequently sturdy assertion, having stood in lieu of these, and materially opposed the progress of this species of knowledge : but if what is here advanced be true, it will be found to subvert nearly all that has been done upon the subject, and to open almost an entirely new prospect on these things. I cannot forbear offering a remark in this place respecting the veterinary profession, independent of the subject of shoeing, in order to give encouragement to those that are engaged in it, who may at present find it full of difficulty ; and to the public, who may be inclined to withdraw their support, as if it were a hopeless profession. There is no art, it may be maintained, so perplexed and difficult, that by human industry and research, steadily and properly exerted, cannot be rendered more clear and practicable : to accomplish this, however, time must be allowed. Public institutions in themselves cannot, it is obvious, create knowledge ; they can only afford con- venient opportunities for study to those who are disposed to employ vi PREFACE. them ; and it must still be from individual exertion that improve- ments will spring. When a few advances have been made beyond the present state, the progress will be probably more rapid, and its service to the horse and to mankind will assuredly be felt. Many disappointments have without doubt arisen from unfounded expect- ations of relief in desperate and hopeless cases where art could not avail ; and some, not finding their interest served in this respect, have become rancorous enemies to the establishment and the pro- fession. The fruit has been sought before the blossom was unfolded. Still there can be no doubt that if human medicine and surgery have been aided by public establishments, the veterinary art must admit of improvement by the same means. It is with pain, however, I have to record, in publishing this second edition, that now the mystery has been unfolded, and the difficulty exposed nearly twenty years, the greatest obstacle to its general acknowledgment and diffusion has originated with that very school founded for promoting horse knowledge, though I had taken every care to avoid giving offence, — so dangerous are institutions, and protected incorporations of men, who have interests at variance with the science they profess, and who view invidiously any knowledge or discovery not originating with themselves. Many promising young men were engaged in this profession at the first establishment of the college, who would have succeeded in any of the common occupations of life, but who have sunk under the difficulties of this. The obscurity of some cases, and the irre- mediable nature of others, with the obstinate opposition of persons interested in the support of darkness, have been so adverse to success, that they have fallen sacrifices to them. Of myself, I may remark, that I have with difficulty persevered under the various discouraging circumstances to which I have been exposed ; but at length surmounted several of them, I shall not be deterred from the exercise of this profession while health and strength remain. Whenever I may think that small advances have been made, I PREFACE. vii propose to give to the public the result of my inquiries ; provided they should meet with a favourable reception, and defray the ex- penses incurred in printing them. I am quite at a loss to guess what I have done to offend those personages, the professors of the various veterinary colleges ; but by nearly all have I been treated basely, — concealing my discoveries from their pupils, and by endeavouring to traduce and misrepresent them. Professor Coleman, in a most unprovoked manner, has done this ; and though he dared not make any open manly attack, which would have been quickly answered, he has to his pupils in secret used all the little arts of defamation, and has nearly prevented, through his agents thus misled, and who scattered this poison of their prejudice through the country, what little advantages I might have derived by the sale of my work, or rather of obtaining some small portion of reimbursement for my many expenses in pursuing these subjects, in doing which I seldom flinched, as will be seen, at any cost that appeared to be required for ascertaining or clearing up a doubtful point. In my first edition, though his work lay before me, a tempting object for remark and criticism, I used him with much delicacy, that I might not injure a school I ardently wished to see flourish : if I spare, therefore, those compliments now, in this present edition, I shall not descend to low abuse or retribution for such very unmerited treatment. He has indeed often insinuated that I was an enemy to the college : I am certainly the enemy of no college, nor of any individual ; and may I not say my labours have been directed for the general good in elucidating these arts, and for the use and advantage of all who practise or profess them. Professor Girard, of the Alfort school near Paris, has, with more candour than my countrymen, very handsomely complimented this work on the foot, in the second edition of his Traitd du pied du Cheval ; but afterwards insinuates, in a very loose, vague manner, that it received help from some one in France : this I should have acknowledged with great pleasure had it been so ; but certain it is Vlll PREFACE. that I had great difficulty in getting this work understood there : but that I derived any help in the matter of it, he will easily see could not be the case if he compares it with the original, published six years before in England, and he will then find that many useful p-assages were omitted from the difficulty of translating them. If the new arrangement in that translation is the thing alluded to, I may assure him it was wholly my own, and he has been imposed upon, if any one has really insinuated to him the contrary. I wrote that part of it exactly as it now stands in the translation, and M. Mazion, the Cure of Fourqueux, near St. Germains, translated it, but with great difficulty, from not knowing the subject, whilst I resided in his house, during two or three weeks, and assisted him ; and the first, or introductory part of it, was translated by my brother- in-law, J. J. Secretan, in England, and was taken over to France. A quotation, indeed, I thought I observed among the Latin writers, alluded to in the Essay " On the Knowledge of the Ancients re- specting Shoeing" which might have been added by Professor Huzard in printing it ; but excepting this, I know of nothing that could be so interpreted, and if this had been omitted, the proofs would have been equally decisive of the end proposed in this disser- tation. And as to Lafosse, if any one will read him attentively and altogether, they will, I think, come to the conclusion, that so far from borrowing from him, I have allowed him to know what he really never understood ; or why did not his countrymen understand it before 1 published, and have practised shoeing with a motion for the foot long ago ? but it was the business of these colleges formerly to depreciate Lafosse, till I praised him as making the only step that had been made, though a false one : for certain it is, that by his false doctrine about frog-pressure, he did a great deal of harm, and the effects of it are still felt by thousands of men and horses, both in England and in France, at this day. EXPERIMENTS ON THE FOOT OF THE HORSE. Chap. I. — The views commonly entertained of the cause of these defects in the going of horses by various characters supposed from their habits to have a knowledge of these things. The views also of the more enlightened. Various principles of shoeing, as they are called, examined ; good and bad Shoeing ; One principle only, — that defined. An experiment undertahen and executed in illustration of the effects of Shoeing. There is nothing can retard the advances of any art more than too much apprehension about its mysteries and difficulties. The art of naiUng iron to horses' feet for their defence is in itself sufficiently simple; a view of the process would show it; the readiness with which those who practise it attain the art would also evince it. The consequences entailed by a long continuance of this procedure it is that affects the feet; and the public, finding defects in their horses' going from causes which were not at once apparent, have ac- quiesced in the mysterious nature of this art, which we hope to be enabled, in the following pages, to develope sufficiently for every one to have a right apprehension of it. This tenderness in the fore feet of horses, and especially in the saddle horses, from its varying in the same animal so much, has cre- ated great embarrassment ; and some are so differently affected to 10 others, that it has added to the intricacy of it. Some horses are continually tripping without ever falling ; others are bolder in their step and appear less affected, but fall at once and with more serious consequences ; others are only brought to stepping shortly ; others go wholly on the toe, as the shoe if examined evinces ; these arise from the same cause operating on different feet and different con- stitutions of the horse ; the autumnal season, from its weakening influence on horses, will subject them to feel it more, and render them at this season liable to more casualties, though no season is exempt. There is often, I have observed, much shyness in speaking of these things among men, for fear these errors should be imputed to a want of jockeyship ; and few inquiries are made about them for the same reason : no man likes to make inquiries about horses, for that would imply a want of knowledge. Another of the strong causes which have tended to keep this matter in obscurity, has been the great repugnance which individuals have to admit any thing which tends to diminish the value of their animal, especially if they had any intention of selling him ; therefore dealers and jockeys treated the defect in the lightest way possible, and even denied the truth of its existence. The fear also of being regarded as a bad horseman, and wanting address to keep the horse up, leads others to the same conduct of not admitting it. When, however, circumstances of this sort have not existed, it has not been difficult to get an avowal from reasonable persons of the truth of this position. And my own experience in riding very many horses has but rendered me too much a witness of this tenderness, and which by others less acquainted with the nature of it, has been often followed by consequences the most lamentable, and has never failed to lead to the early misery and premature destruction of the horse himself. If it was not so, why use rending bits and cruel irons, whips and spurs, to an animal that in a general way would be easily led by the smallest cord when in health and free from pain ? It is by 11 these irons that they hope to arrest the attention of the horse, and keep him from too much regarding the feelings of his feet : without this tenderness they would certainly not be necessary. And the cunning grooms, generally on these occasions, if such accident should happen, throw the fault of the horse upon the rider, by saying, (if it is not to himself that it has happened) that " he has thrown his horse down," as though the horse's fault was not of himself, but somehow the fault of the rider. In following this change in the feet attentively, we may perceive that from time to time, at different periods of his early life, that it is accompanied with the most extreme distress and weak- ness upon the limbs, of which the rider, however deficient in feeling, cannot but be sensible, and which neither the whip nor the spur can keep him many yards from becoming ready to drop : in some jour- neys we have had, we have felt this with indescribable anguish, and the more, perhaps, from knowing the real cause of it. Accidents also are by no means rare : neither nobility, wealth, nor even royalty itself, are exempted from them, and which will happen in spite of all the advantages of their situation. The dreadful fall of Lord Deerhurst, by which he lost both his eyes ; of the Marquis of Tavistock ; of the Marquis of Thomond ; and of others, are yet presented to the remembrance of our con- temporaries : and William the Conqueror himself, after all his toils, fatigues, and dangers of war, found his death in the fall of his horse ; having been thrown forwards upon the pommel of the saddle, he was so bruised that he died of the injury. This accident, by the monkish historians of the time, was imputed to a judgment from Heaven upon him, as a punishment for his cruelty in burning down the town of Mantes in Normandy ; others said, the horse put his foot on a live cinder of the burning town, which it is very unlikely he could have felt through his shoe and hoof, or which if he felt, there was nothing to prevent his removing away from : whichever of these causes it was, it is a singular circumstance, and worthy of remark, that he was, as there is every reason to believe, the first who introduced the present B 2 12 mode of fettering horses' feet into England, and was one of the first victims of the art he introduced. No one, I believe, will have the hardihood to deny the danger of mounting horses thus mutilated. Among my acquaintance and friends I could relate many instances of miserable accidents, and the news- papers are furnishing plenteous proof every day, in support of this assertion. The appearance also of broken knees proclaim every- where the little assurance there is on feet that have been so igno- rantly treated. A very large coach proprietor in London, (Willan,) struck with the misery of the bearing rein, and perhaps a broken jaw or two, ordered all his horses to be freed from them. On being put to work, the accidents with their knees became so extensive, that he was again compelled to relinquish his humane endeavours, and resort to this most cruel alternative, at least as it is often made use of. The present system of shoeing, and its consequences, ruin such multitudes of horses, that surely the discovery of its cause, beyond the power of denial, cannot but be of the highest importance in the affairs of mankind ; as well also as on account of the sufferings of the animal ; for not one in thirty of all that are raised live to see the half of their natural life expended ! I have also remarked, that the most frequent accidents happen to the horse about the fifth year of his age, and which has appeared to me to arise from this cause, — that the great conflict between the iron and the foot arrives at its height about this period, and that after this the poor sufferer learns to go in a manner that is more suited to his actual condition, that is, with a shortened step, humouring the state of the parts, and in which there is less danger of falling ; and the foot after this period yields a more passive submission to the overpowering effects of the iron and nails. The different form of the shoe which by hand are never made twice alike, and the different direction of the nails, which no one can certainly direct, or know whether bent or straight in passing through 13 the hoof, will also occasion endless difference even in the best hands. All these causes, simple as they may appear, had cast a formidable and almost impenetrable veil over these arts. There is also other ways of viewing these things, and entrapping the understanding, rather than entering into a troublesome inquiry about them ; and if a complaint is made of the bad going of the horse, it is easily stated that it arises from too hard service ; or if it be in great towns, that it is their going on the stones. Yet do we find these defects as frequently in the country as in towns, and as often among horses which are hardly used at all as with those which are fully employed. If the stable-keeper is asked why his horses are so tender before ? and why there needs so much trouble to keep them up — so much so, that all pleasure in riding is destroyed ? his answer is, " Why, horses to be sure will by use become leg-weary, and every one who knows any thing about horses knows that well enough ;" and with a smile at the simplicity of the inquirer, he quits the subject. If any one, not having the usual awe of this character, should ask the coachman why he wants two or three kinds of irons to be put in his horse's mouth, his answer will be, " Why, would any one be so mad as to attempt to drive without them ?" Then if you are appre- hensive of your horses' falling, — what is the cause of this ? " Go ask the smiths ; they can tell you better about it — they don't shoe them safely." If the shoeing-smith be inquired of respecting this matter, and how does the horse become tender ?— " Why, it is to-be-sure from always standing in the dry Htter of the stables ; and that is plain enough, for the hind feet are never affected, because they are more in the dung and moisture, which makes it clear enough ;" and thus this business is disposed of without further trouble among them. And these answers would serve to hinder a deeper research into the actual causes of them. Such were the usual apprehensions and 14 opinions of those to whom the public had been used to hsten with most attention in these matters. Lafosse, many years ago, in France, advanced a fair step beyond such idle opinions as the above, by asserting, after anatomically con- sidering the structure and functions of the foot, that this evil of ten- derness proceeded from the elevation of the foot from the ground by the shoe, and the consequent removal of the frog from pressure, which its situation in the foot appeared to him to demand ; and in order to remove this difficulty, he strongly urged the use of a thin- heeled shoe.* Mr. Coleman, the professor of the Veterinary College, has main- tained also the same opinion. It would appear, however, that if the cause of the evil had really lain here, his patent artificial frog, by bringing the supposed requisite pressure to this part, would have long ago removed the mischief, which it does not appear to do : nor will it be our business at present to consider, supposing this theory to be true, what would be the consequence of bringing strong pres- sure upon the frog, while the quarters or sides of the foot, confined by the nails, or rendered stiff and unyielding by any other circum- stance, should resist the expansion. Suffice it to say, that the con- ditions premised of the natural foot would be changed ; as the foot so treated would be no longer in its natural state ; and of course the reasonings made upon that foot as in a state of nature become in- conclusive, and the result affiarded by the actual experiment gives proof of this. For experience, the severe test and arbiter of the truth of all our reasonings, has shown, that there was some acting cause which stood in the way of the practical use of these doctrines of pressure on the frog ; and that, notwithstanding the strong reasons urged in the support of it, neither in France, where it was first pro- pagated, nor in England, did the low-heeled shoe gain ground, or * La Nouvelle Pratique sur la Ferrure. Paris, 1758, p. 110. 15 has it been much used ; for in so serving the frog, if the pressure was at all considerable, it was sure to bring on a heat of the foot, and on farther exercise in this way a tenderness that the rider could not but be sensible of ; and if pushed still farther, lameness. When we come to consider the structure and real office of the frog, these effects of strong pressure, or of battering upon the ground, will no longer be matter of surprise. And Mr. Coleman has since shod again with a thick-heeled shoe, and afterwards another, provided with an internal clip to rest against the bar of the foot, for which he has also obtained a patent ; and these have been followed by two others, also equally well imagined.* We believe we shall be perfectly able to * Viz., the Spit-bar and Grasshopper shoes. The former is made with a flat bar of iron from its inner margin, opposite the toe, and passing backwards, is made to lodge upon the frog, and is then nailed on ! The other is with a steel spring welded upon the upper surface of the shoe near the heels, intended to rest against the column of in- flexion ! What a monopoly of patents is here ! the ill success and failure of one half of them would have been sufiicient to have opened the eyes, and sunk the confidence of any man of less front than our professor ; and such grasping too from one whose situation affords him such ample advantages in patronage and emolument. This last patent having no view to the squeezing of the frog, leads one to apprehend that this miserable and senseless proposition is at last abandoned by him, which we cannot but rejoice at, as it is the second time it has been made the scourge of these worthy, defenceless creatures : for before Lafosse's death, it had again got into disuse from the smiths finding, however specious it was in theory, that it did not do in prac- tice, but without its rejection being attended with any enlightened views or exposition of the cause of its want of success. The revival of it in this country is much to be lamented, as the prejudices of early education are not easily overcome, nor will the effects of it probably be entirely lost in more than twenty years ; so widely and indus- triously has it been diffused and enforced with such a peremptory mandate of acqui- escence in the examinations of the humano medical committee of examiners for granting diplomas. I record these shoes also as it were for way-marks or viseful points in the history of the art, that they should never again be brought forward to torment the horses or to agitate the profession. This last shoe I shall advert to again when treating of the in- tortional column of the hoof. The institution itself is truly noble ; and if well conducted, and in good hands, would be a great public benefit. — All I have now to wish is, that the professor should 16 clear up this difficulty respecting the thin-heeled shoe in our account of the frog, and to show the cause of its failure ; and also why horses in general (as daily practice confirms) go so much better in shoes with thick heels, or at least, which is better, with a level shoe, or in a shoe with calkins ; for the gradually thickening heel I do not for strong reasons approve. Much is often said among the amateurs about this "and that prin- ciple of shoeing. It does not appear, however, that any shght alter- ation in the configuration of the iron or the surfaces of the shoe deserves that title ; the discretion in applying and fitting it admits also of infinite variety of gradations, and these have been often mis- takenly termed principles also ; and, as though there were two kinds of shoeing, we hear of good and bad shoeing, without these terms having met with any settled meaning or definition. It is the principle of all the shoeing at present known, to attach the iron for the defence of the foot to it by means of nails driven somewhat diagonally through the lower portions of the hoof, — the manner of figuring the iron, of disposing the nails, of driving them at different distances from the coffin bone, or the manner and degree not quit his situation, but begin a total change of measures respecting the foot, suited to the novel discoveries that have been actually made and in this country ; he may yet have time to do a great deal of good if he sincerely and honestly takes it in hand, and also to open the councils of the college as wide as any can desire, — for what secrets can there be in a horse-college if rightly conducted ? And to let veterinary surgeons be the examiners of candidates for the profession, which it is but quite natural and proper they should be, and let them be numerous, and the examination public, that there be no favour or collusion. We might then expect to see a good sound horse- school, and veterinarians worthy of public confidence, and not six, and even three months pupils receiving the sanction of the college as fully qualified veterinarians, which we know to have been the case, fairly inundating the country with them for the paltry consideration of the fee. And let whoever will become subscribers to it ; for the reader will be astonished to learn that a veterinarian, even of his own making, cannot become a subscriber to it from a law made in the hole and corner committee : the cause of such exclusion may be easily guessed, — it excludes the only persons who understand and feel its abuses. — Abolishing also the sale of cheap drugs. 17 of paring away the foot, are all discretional circumstances only, though they materially affect the feet and manner of going of the horse, yet are not properly difference of principle, but are acted upon in endless variety, according to the fancy of the workman, and often with more mischievous consequences than the principle itself necessarily entails ; and to separate what is owing to the one, and what to the other, is truly difficult where both are injurious. I had thoughts of separately considering each of these conditions, and laying down more precise rules for them, that the workmen might have some more regular guide for their labours ; but dis- covering a flagrant and unexpected defect in the nature of the prin- ciple itself, I have devoted my first labours to the making that demonstrative and clear. It is matter of great surprise to me now, that so obvious a circum- stance could even for a day have escaped my notice ; but so strong are the prejudices of education and habit, and the perplexity arising from the usual phrases of the workmen about these things, with a certain fear of forming opinions on what appeared to be so mysterious a subject, that years passed with it daily before me without my per- ceiving this now obvious fact. Mr. Moorcroft, I observe, in one part of his publication, has stated that the foot from a round is reduced to an oval by shoeing ; but here he leaves the subject without a comment, and falls afterwards into the commonly entertained views of these things : and Osmer, many years back, had obscure ideas of the effects of the compression of the feet from shoeing ; yet neither one passage or the other in these writers had struck me on perusal, till the facts I am about to expose fully opened them to my view ; though now it is clear they had both alluded to this circumstance ; yet, from the general tenor of their works, they seemed only to apprehend these consequences from shoeing in particular cases, and understood not what it was that did it. My suspicions once awakened, could not rest long without their truth or falsehood being proved ; and, whilst contemplating the cir- 18 cumstances with considerable anxiety of mind, an experiment for ascertaining it suggested itself, — that of taking casts in plaster from any sound, healthy foot, under the influence of the shoeing process, and repeating those casts from one period to another, and comparing them with each other ; they would then afford me the particulars of change that might take place, and the quantum of diminution of the foot in a given time. Other circumstances unfolded themselves, that were not looked for, as the experiment proceeded, of which we shall now present the reader with the details, so as fully to establish the important fact of the mischievous effects of iron and nails, or of common shoeing rather, upon the horse's foot. The broaching an opinion so at variance with common apprehension and prejudice, would, I well knew, without the clearest evidence, only serve to draw upon me the ridicule of the world, that I was well pleased when I found the thing could be made demonstrable ; for how little the fact 1 am about to disclose was really felt or suspected before by the writers on these subjects, the very numerous works of my contempo- raries will sufficiently show. And I may observe, it was during a painful research in making shoes to be put on without nails that I first began to perceive it ; and what is extraordinary, the general principle on which hinged the phenomenon still remained unknown to me for more than a twelvemonth after discovering the true cause of contraction. Any one would very naturally infer that, if I was employed in making shoes to avoid the nails, it was because I saw the ill effects of the nails upon the foot, — no such thing : I had at this period no dis- tinct apprehension of it; and it was to avoid the use of shoeing- smiths and their mal-practices, and in order that every man might be, or by his servant at least, his own shoer, — so near may we be to a thing, and not perceive it.* And when the thought first came over * The great difficulty of entertaining a new principle will not appear surprising if we reflect that for two thousand years the simple fact of fluids rising to their level, though 19 me that it was the resistance of the nails that caused all this mischief, it was accompanied with an involuntary suffusion of countenance that I shall never forget, from feeling that I saw, probably for the first time, what had never been seen before, in the same sense of view at least; and the feeling was immediately accompanied with a happy assurance that the evil was then truly seen, and that it would be ultimately removed. But what opposition have I met with, and from whom ! That I might expect no mercy from the smiths, whose affairs I had exposed, was quite natural ; but that the veterinarians, whose cause I had laboured and gained, should be made by inte- rested knavery my greatest persecutors, was not to be believed. I trusted that if they were attempted to be deceived, they would, as I should have done, have looked and examined for themselves ; not trusting to those whose momentary interest, perhaps, it might be to betray : but in this I was also disappointed ; for they condemned me unheard, and without examination. They thought they had their accounts from one who had read, and that was enough ; that he would mislead them they could not suppose ; and to misrepresent and slight me was the order of the day, which for twenty years I have borne in silence. I now proceed to the details of an experiment that, in the import- ance of its results, and efficacy of its demonstrations, 1 may safely assert is second to none that ever was made on the subject of horses — exhibiting a cause of animal suffering which is beyond the utter- ance of language to express ; and what is more, showing in what a simple way it may readily be removed, and has been removed in thousands of cases already, as the testimonies given to the public presenting daily to the eye of every one, was not understood upon principle so as to be acted upon for this long period ; the immense labours of the ancient aquaducts suffi- ciently prove the fact ; and the daily periodical works and magazines, which treat of these affairs of horses, will show the difficulty that many have to comprehend it now that its cause is demonstrably shown, and the evasive nonsense they use as though to avoid the seeing it. c 2 20 along with the description of the new mode of shoeing most fully and unanswerably testify,* It has been an iron age indeed with them, and not in a metaphor- ical, but hteral sense. And I should not have insisted so much on the importance of what I have done, as may be seen in my first edition, where these things are narrated in the most unassuming manner, and my discoveries hardly claimed as suchj if they had not been so basely attempted to be depreciated. Commencement of the Experiment. A young blood mare of great beauty, and turned of five years old, was brought to my shoeing forge in Giltspur-street from Weymouth Mews to be shod, that had been bred by George Hobson, Esq., and permitted to run wild and unshod till her fifth year, that her strength and growth should be as much as possible completed before she was brought into use. The opportunity so extraordinarily afforded me of making the experiment was not to be lost ; for a second, I thought, might not occur ; and such another has in reality never occurred to this day. — Timid, and unused to have her feet meddled with, to get an impression was attended with some difficulty : the plaster of Paris was poured upon her foot held sole upwards ; but before it could well set, she grew uneasy at the position, and, dashing her foot to the ground, broke it in a thousand pieces ; and a second also in the same way. After this, as might be expected, she grew more impatient at being handled, and I almost despaired of succeeding. Being sur- rounded by many persons, I hoped to effect it better if she was led alone to the stable ; and giving her a feed of corn, in order to take off her attention, I placed the foot, unperceived by her, in a bowl containing plaster wetted with warm water, that it might set the * Description of the new Tablet Shoe of Expansion ; with numerous testimonials. Second Edition, 1827. 21 more quickly. After waiting a few minutes, and the plaster had become perfectly hard, I drew it away without much difficulty, which exhibited a complete impression of her foot in all its circumstances. This was done in the presence of my worthy and much-esteemed friend, Mr. John Biddle of Birmingham, on the fourth day of June, 1804, who felt kindly interested in the successful issue of the at- tempt, and in the nature of this inquiry. After smearing this impression or mould with a little lard to prevent adhesion, some fresh plaster was cast upon it : I thus obtained the figure of the foot represented in Plate I. ; and for the beauty and symmetry of its parts, nature perhaps does seldom surpass it. That the reader who is not much used to the study of horses may make himself acquainted with the parts of the horse's foot, we shall here describe them in a general manner. They are given for this purpose as large as in nature, that there might be less possibility of error ; for the natural horse's foot has never, I believe, before been very truly represented ; and by doing this he will be the more pre- pared to trace the changes it is doomed to undergo by artificial aid. The representation has been admitted, both by the draftsman and engraver, to be attended with difficulty ; and but for the kind assist- ance of my very worthy and ingenious friend Mr. Sydenham Edwards, it would not have been near so well represented as it is : we may also remark, that a tolerably distant view of it, as laying it on the ground, makes it appear to more advantage than a nearer one. 22 Chap. II. — On the Foot, The animal machine viewed generally — - its construction and manner of bearing on the foot. Various pro- visions in the attachments and position of the limbs and foot to prevent concussion. The division of the parts of the foot and of the hoof. The important principle of elasticity laid down and exemplified in various animals. The wall of the Hoof — its ge- neral form and particular construction — its inflexions. The dis- covery of the Frog-band — the outer surface — inner surface. The KERAPHYLLA dcscribcd, and podophylla. Composition of the Hoof ^c. Having secured a cast in plaster of the foot of the mare, I propose to wait twelve months, in order to see any and what changes may have taken place in the foot during this period, exposed to the pow- erful operation of iron and nails. And now, dismissing for awhile the further consideration of the subject of the experiment, enter into a consideration of the construction of the organ that has been thus treated. I may in this place just observe, that in my first entering on this work, I had only in view to make known the true cause of tenderness in horses' fore feet by the experiment we have begun to describe, and had no view to any anatomical investigation ; but being led to look at the foot more closely as an elastic organ, to explain the phenomena of the experiment, its structure became manifest, and formed in the first edition a very long parenthetical insertion in the midst of the experiment, and which arrangement, to remove the dryness and form- ality of mere anatomical description, I have here pursued also in this edition ; concentrating the matter, however, and giving it more of order and method, and adding what appeared necessary ; and it is singular that it was not till I had gone far in that work that I fully perceived that it was to the principle of elasticity that all the pheno- 23 mena were attributable, and that they could be solved upon, and that it pervaded all feet as a fundamental principle. In the former edition, (1809,) some remarks on the absurdity of the term heels, when applied to the horse's foot, were inserted at this part of the work, and which led into a view of the appearances of the foetal foot of the horse : both these considerations we now defer to a future opportunity ; since the foetal foot cannot be very well understood by the reader till the horse's foot has been treated of ; as many of its parts are new and hitherto undescribed, and are as yet without names : we therefore proceed without farther preamble to a consideration of the adult horse's foot ; and this description, we trust, will be found widely different from any description that has ever hitherto been attempted on this subject. And in order to entertain as comprehensive a knowledge of this organ as we can obtain, we first take a survey, in a very cursory manner, of the machine which it is destined to support and to carry ; and we may then remark how tliis weight is brought and disposed to bear upon it, and what are the provisions which exist to prevent any injury to the foot, or of any concussion or reaction to the body. The body, or the trunk of the horse, appears to be fashioned not much unlike a boat, and is formed of rounded, swelling ribs, as in that machine ; the sternum has also very much the appearance of the keel of a vessel, and resembles this part in a remarkable manner anteriorly. ISIow these ribs as they approach above, are closed by the spine, forming a sort of deck or roofing to the vessel, and which is greatly strengthened every where by various eminences and pro- cesses of bone rising high above, and projecting strongly on the sides of this ridge or mid-stay of the deck, if we may be allowed the ex- pression; and which is then carried out beyond the boat in both direc- tions, forming anteriorly the neck to which is appended the head, and at the other or opposite end, widening first at the sacrum, it terr minates more simply by the caudal extremity, or tail, which, however, is made of considerable length, and is in the living animal most mag- 24 nificently furnislied with hair, so that it becomes no mean counter- poise, at least in appearance, to the larger head of the opposite extremity, and thus eminently contributes to the beauty, grace, and symmetrical appearance of the animal. Being filled with the various viscera for its life, maintenance, and direction, it is necessary that this boat should now be suspended in the air, and receive the means of its being supported and conveyed about, for which purpose the limbs are provided, placed in pairs, or double columns at either extremity of the machine.* The two fore columns or limbs, we may observe, are vastly en- larged at their upper parts, and their surface extended, as we see with the shoulder-blades and arms, in order to their firm attachment to the ribs, and the trunk or boat is then suspended or slung between them, resting upon them by various points of attachment, of a soft and lax nature of tendon and muscle ; and these fore limbs, we may remark, having to sustain a much greater share of the weight than the hind limbs, receive a perpendicular direction also, thus affording to them the greatest strength of a column : these limbs, however, do not reach the ground in following this perpendicular direction, as that would have given too great a shock ; but on arriving near the ground they take a new course or direction anteriorly, and by a suc- cession of three distinct bones, the pastern, the coronet, and the coffin bone, and their respective joints not only divert the line of bearing and direction, but soften the impression to all the parts above and below, as also more remarkably by the extensive spring this angle affiards. And the last of these three bones is yet farther most eminently provided with the means of defending itself from abrupt collision or sudden shock by the capacious covering of the hoof and its spring ; which at the same time also very much serves to enlarge * For a more full account of this admirable arrangement, see a description of the section of the horse : with a superb coloured figure, price £2. 2s. ; and without this, 10*. 6d. 25 tlie quantity of bearing surface of the foot upon the ground, which in these fore feet is much more extensive than in those behind ; and their phancy also, as we have stated, is more considerable. The hind limbs, placed near to the opposite extremity of the ma- chine, which is very much enlarged and strengthened to receive them, having a less weight to support, have not the perpendicular direction of the fore limbs given them, but are thrown into angles for impelling the body when in quick action, and by their collapse, pro- jection, and subsequent extension, impel the body forward: the point of the limb in this movement appears for this purpose to be carried out forwards anterior to the centre of motion, and like a fixed radius, is brought to act against the ground, and the body is then ^hot over it by the power of the muscles of the haunch, which are necessarily immensely large, as they are acting to a mechanical disadvantage so very near to the centre of motion. And in order that none of the force or momentum should be lost, these limbs are attached to the trunk, not by soft muscle as in the fore extremities, but by a solid bony connection, having a strong ball and socket joint ; and the hind feet to be in conformity with these limbs in office and effect, are made harder, loftier, firmer, and less yielding than the fore feet. Now the whole weight or impression of the animal, it would appear, becomes finally dispersed and lost on three chief points, so as not to be severely felt by either of them, that is, upon the fetlock joint, the deep front of the hoof, and the posterior, and more yielding elastic parts of the foot. And it farther appears probable, that under particular circumstances it may happen accord- ing to the will of the animal that either of these points can be made to receive a greater share, and be the bearer of more weight ; and in cases of tender feet, the animal giving his weight more to the toe or to the fetlock, and less to the posteriors of the foot, as when these parts have suffered by contraction and absorption, the strain or stress being then greater upon the above parts, their relaxation and D 26 enlargement will earlier take place, and which will explain the cause of these very frequent appearances, and also of their being so often strained there. From this short sketch of the general machine, we pass now to the foot itself, the chief object of our inquiries ; and that the reader may be able fairly to contemplate this organ, we have provided him, and for the first time it was ever very correctly represented, with a real view of this interesting part, the horse's natural foot, (see Plate I.) uncontaminated by art, at five years old, and pretty fully developed ; and to prevent error it is given of the full size of life, in a horse of more than fifteen hands. It was executed by Thomas Milton, an engraver of great celebrity, who was, at different periods, three years employed upon it, and often declared it an object of considerable difficulty. As method and arrangement gives force and clearness to any subject we are about to treat, so I shall divide the whole mass of the foot, as taken from the limb, into three classes of parts, viz., the Bones, or central nucleus of the foot ; the attaching parts, which are disposed between the bones and the hoof ; and the Hoof itself. This last we now propose to consider, and believe we shall have to unfold many new and unknown traits respecting it. The hoof again I also divide into three parts, — the Wall, the Frog, and the Sole. But before entering into a description of these different parts, we believe it will greatly facilitate our right apprehensions of the subject if we first take into our view and consideration a most indispensable property necessary to the construction of all feet, which, though of an abstract nature, is able, if duly reflected upon, to explain the mis- takes and hidden mysteries that have for so many ages involved this art of shoeing, and concealed its wretched effects in almost impene- trable darkness, and which simple property every part of the hoof is •27 formed in relation, and made subservient to. I here allude to the simple principle of Elasticity, or the condition of an elastic yielding of the hoof to every degree of impression of the weight or of exer- tion of the animal brought upon it. This inestimable property it is that guarantees the foot from fatigue, preserves it from jar, and the body from re-action and con- cussion, and all the injuries which a too solid resistance would have occasioned to both, and probably assisting also the animal in his advances by a return to its former figure after distension. Examples of the general property of Elasticity in feet. For the clearer developement of this principle, I shall now select among the various families of the quadruped world some striking examples where its existence and beneficial effects may be conspi- cuously perceived, and afterwards exhibit it in the foot of the horse more fully, where this property for certain reasons is not so obvious, and which has caused it hitherto to have been overlooked, occa- sioning to this most worthy animal for a long period the grossest injustice, and the infliction of incalculable suffering and misery. The feet of quadrupeds, we may remark, in their different races, are very differently constructed for meeting the ground, and for sup- porting their bodies. — Some of these, which are extremely light and active, and which appear to live on trees, almost as the birds, rather than on the ground, as the Squirrel, have their feet formed of long digitations or fingers only, with long horny claws and curved, in order to the running up the trunks of trees, sticking into the bark, and which also enable them to hold themselves if there is occa- sion, and to run along suspended in a surprising manner to the underside of the branches; and some of this agile family may be almost called beasts of the air, for they can fly from tree to tree, and even descend from the tops of the highest trees of the forest to the ground by making a parachute of their lax and very extended skins ; and even our own common squirrel will descend in this way through D 2 28 the air to the ground by the singular measure of a swift rotation of his bushy tail. And the foot, by its length and elasticity, contributes also in these to soften the fall, and render it less felt : and in every animal this part is constructed with a view to the particular soil which he treads, and to the particular mode of hfe he pursues^ but in^ all it is made elastic ; for example : In the Camel, the foot, in order to its being non-resistant, is first di- vided deeply into two parts, each furnished with a very strong and broad claw : besides this, underneath each hoof is found an elastic pad, into which the hoof sinks, and is embedded all round as in a soft stuffed cushion, and rising up the sides of the foot, keeps off the effects of the hot and scorching sands of those regions, which nature has more especially doomed him to : this extension of surface also must cause him less to sink into them ; the whole apparatus affording the highest degree of elasticity and ease the foot is capable of re- ceiving, especially necessary in those hot countries. In the Dog, nature, or a kind providence rather, has placed a large triangular pad in the middle of the foot, covered outside with tough horny skin : and another of a similar description, and smaller, is found at the origin or base of each claw ; and these appear to be formed within of tough Jibro or tendino cartilaginous materials, and are covered, as we have said, exteriorly with a hard horny skin^ This organization affords an elastic bearing for the animal, and breaks the force of concussion upon the ground in passing rapidly over it. This effect also is contributed to, and much augmented by, a division of the bones of the metatai'sus into four parallel ranges, giving to all these parts a remarkable flexibility. As to the Cat, we may remark, that her foot the moment that it meets the ground, descending from any height, is seen widely to expand, and that the fingers and the claws spread on all sides to widen the surface of bearing and deaden the shock. We observe also mats or cushions in the centre of her foot and at the root of the claws, performing the same office as in the dog y they are, however. 29 of a softer nature, but fully sufficient for an animal so obviously light, small, and active. A nobler example is the lion's paw. In the Ox there is not properly any mat or cushion to the foot ; the claws, however, are thinner on the inside ; but in this sort of simple cloven foot, which is common to a very large share of the quadruped world, the elastic principle necessary to these parts is chiefly accomplished by a longitudinal division of the podal and juxta-podal bones of the foot as high up as the fetlock joint ; and this division gives to these parts all the suppleness of which there is need, and affords an easy yielding to the impression of the weight, and destroys any jar or repercussion to the body. The two claws also on meeting the ground, if it is soft, will separate, receiving the earth between them, and so will diminish the suddenness of the impression, and also widen the bearing surface and render the foot more fixed and firm on the ground. This flexibility, indeed, in some of these animals exists to such a degree, as in the cows for instance, that the sight of it is almost disgusting, when the weight of their bodies re- poses strongly upon it ; but we are reconciled to it when we reflect that this same property, though somewhat unsightly, is particularly well adapted to the general structure and uses of these invaluable creatures, and to the innocent and peaceful habits to which a kind providence has ordained them. The Elephant possesses in an eminent degree this elasticity of the foot ; his immense body is sustained on four columns, placed almost perpendicularly underneath this ponderous weight. Their bases, or inferior extremities, repose upon a vast mat or pad, made of a material apparently between horn and cartilage : this central mass resembles a strong piece of sole leather or raw pelt, and this foot is exteriorly divided into five parts, each terminated by a very strong horny claw or hoof ; one of these, and larger, is placed in front, and the other two are disposed on each side. It is not improbable that these claws, when the animal is in quick movement, will aid him, by taking a share of the weight, and by being forced strongly against so the ground, dig into it, and give perhaps a certain degree of fixed- ness to his march. The Foot of Man, on pressing against the ground, extends and dilates in a very visible manner in all directions ; and as the upper leather of the shoe is much thinner than the sole, so it readily permits this change of form ; and also the hollow which is observable beneath the foot, and which we call the planta, or sole, and which represents a kind of vault or arch, sinks, and flattens on receiving the weight, and consequently extends, thus preventing any jamming or condensation of the parts together, and so preserves to all of them their natural freedom and liberty. In respect to the Horse, this indispensable property has also an existence in his foot, but in a much inferior degree, and perhaps less so, as I have already observed, than in any other animal. But we shall not be astonished at this, if we reflect that with him is accom- plished one of the most difficult problems in mechanics, that is to say, the moving of a large and heavy body with an extraordinary degree of velocity, and for the surmounting this difficulty, a remark- able degree of solidity appears to have been imparted to his foot by a hoof of one piece, in order that nothing of the momentum afforded by the osseous and muscular machinery should be lost. And without doubt this sohdity it was of the foot of the horse that has occasioned this elastic property to be so long wholly overlooked, and has led these smiths to treat it more as a senseless block of wood without any motion than as a living elastic organ, most elaborately con- structed for these extraordinary performances, and whose construction, these circumstances premised, we now resume the consideration of We do not propose, in giving this account of the foot, to enter into a tedious detail of minute circumstances of a common-place nature in the construction of the foot, as such cannot explain the 31 arts of shoeing, and its difficulties and mysteries, though it might Very well serve, as it has done before with some, to make a book for sale ; but intend to confine ourselves chiefly to the hoof itself, which will nearly explain all that is necessary. In order to illustrate these subjects, we shall divide the hoof into its constituents of three dis- tinct parts, which has not been attended to before, and view them afterwards connectedly, to show that they produce by their com- bination not only a box of horn for the covering the foot, as it has been hitherto generally regarded, but also a most beautiful machine, possessing remarkable properties, and an almost indefinite power of yielding to the load, a property as indispensable as the defence and protection that it so obviously affi^rds.* We commence with its chief member. Of the Wall of the Hoof Its name. — General form. All the exterior part of the hoof, which is seen by the eye when the foot is placed upon the ground, we call the wall of the hoof, for, like the wall of a building, it sustains all the more delicate parts within, and serves to protect them from the injury of the external elements : the French also call this part for the same reason la muraille, or the wall, which we vastly prefer to the miserable term crust, by which some have designated it, and * As this work may for some time be a work of reference in our art, so I take the earliest opportunity of explaining to those who may not have studied the Greek lan- guage, the signification of the two words used in the title, the utility of which, as dis- tinctive names will be found at all times in speaking of or referring to this work, as they may be used at full length or in any abbreviation, as Clark's Hipponomy, or simply Clark's Podonomy, instead of a long tedious explanatory title, which in English would have been necessary; for new terms are best to fix new arts. The first of these, Hippodonomia, is derived from imos, a horse ; irow, iroSoj, a foot ; and voiws, a law. The other is from tous, ttoSoj, a foot ; and