economy of the whole foot, and its maintenance in health, also lend their aid in producing sound horn. Without the removal of shoes the ‘water cure’ cannot be a complete success. Mayhew says: ‘The heels of the horse may become rigid and wired in by the fixing powers exercised by the nails of the shoe. But remove these nails, allow the foot that motion which is needful to the health, and its internal structures may recover their lost functions. The veterinary mind was, however, slow to recognise so plain a rule. Like all Nature’s laws, the truth necessitated not that show of mastery in which the ignorant especially delight.’
The writer has already confessed his inability to agree with Mayhew in everything he says; and he thinks that here he is unjust to veterinary surgeons. There is, perhaps, not one among them who would not order the removal of shoes oftener than he now does, if he could be sure that his order would be attended to. Owners rebel, up to the last point, against what will evidently throw the horse out of work for some considerable length of time. They prefer ‘patching up.’
It is not sufficiently acknowledged, or understood, that veterinary surgeons have to deal with people who generally want their ‘say’ in all cases of lameness. In other matters they are more tractable; but every one thinks he knows something about lameness, and almost every one tries to shirk what every practitioner would recommend, if he conveniently could—rest. But, knowing, as they do,
