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 is 
 
 I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, ^ 
 
 e i M»a»a;ei:;!<»;a!Myi<asagga(icaggqa 
 
 She/f 
 
 A33. 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 ^ 
 
Ci}2u n^rOi of J U'cde 
 
 Smue of a (i'Us Teeih, frojn 
 
 CcraeTeedi of 3 MonOis 
 
 'Mate 
 
 T/fi y4(j( of tJif Hcu^se, 
 
 Ih^a-mirud 7n- the Tc<th. 
 
A TREATISE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Being a true delineation, with instructions how to tell his age, from 
 
 a foal to the period of sixteen years ; 
 
 TAKEN FROM ACTUAL DISSECTIONS, 
 
 AT THE 
 YBTERINART COLLEGE OF LONDON : 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 AN ESSAY, 
 
 ON FOUNDER, CONTRACTION AND RUNNING THRUSH ; 
 
 Showing how thousands of horses in the United States, are annually destroyed by 
 these three diseases, before they have arrived at one third the natural period of 
 life. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 THE CAUSES, BEST MODE OF TREATMENT, AND CURE BT THE USE OF THE 
 HOT AND COLD BATH, INTRODUCED INTO THIS COUNTBT ON A NEW 
 PRI;NCIPI.E BT THE AUTHOR. 
 
 P<1^^ 
 
 J Br JAMES CARVER, 
 
 Veterinary surgeon, professor of animal medicines, and corresponding member of 
 the London Veterinary Medical Society. 
 
 PIIILADELPHM : 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY UTTELL 8c HENRY, 
 
 NO, 74, SOUTH SECOND STREET. 
 MBRBITT, PRINTED, 
 
 "TsisT" 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE Utility of a knowledge of the veterina- 
 ry art, is manifested by daily experience ; and, 
 although so many treatises have been M^ritten on 
 the ages of horses, that any person would ima- 
 gine any more to be superfluous, I am sorry 
 to say, that very few, if ani/ of them, have 
 proved by actual experiment what they have 
 asserted. 
 
 Every treatise, which has fallen into my hands 
 for live and thirty years past, has boldly as- 
 serted that a colt is foaled without teeth, but 
 whether this error has originated for want of 
 further investigation at birth, or for want of a 
 knowledge of anatomy^ is now to be proved from 
 facts too incontrovertible to be doubted ; tbe 
 ages as here delineated in this treatise being taken 
 from actual dissection at the veterinary college 
 of London, under the eye of professor Coleman. 
 
When I had entered on my professional studies 
 at the veterinary college of London, although my 
 experience in India and other parts of the world 
 had been very great, there were still some pheno- 
 mena respecting the age of horses, which ap- 
 peared to me extremely doubtful, which induced 
 me to consult my worthy preceptor, professor 
 Coleman, the best way to go about removing 
 them. On the following day, after having made 
 this request, he invited me to walk with him into 
 the dissecting room, where he made to me the 
 following observation, **I will now sir, answer 
 the request you made me, respecting the doubts 
 you entertained respecting the age of horses ; 
 you possess no doubt a great deal of ex- 
 j>erience, but here, in this room, is the school of 
 investigation and truth ; where by industry, labour 
 and research, every doubt may be removed ; may 
 success attend them." Profiting therefore, by this 
 hint, I sedulously went to work, and the following 
 plates are true delineations of the age of a horse, 
 taken from actual dissection at the veterinary 
 college. 
 
 Whether these obstacles which might have 
 been overcome, by a proper investigation, have 
 slackened the courage of those persons entrust- 
 
ed with the care and preservation of horses, or 
 whether a crowd of self-opiniated men, whom we 
 meet with ahuost every where, have been the 
 cause of this error, it is certain, that it has not 
 even to this day obtained a proper confidence. 
 
 Many people in this country think that the 
 knowledge of the horse, is neither susceptible of 
 any particular study, nor capable of further im- 
 provement ; in consequence, they are continually 
 asserting that experience alone is sufficient, 
 
 I allow, that experience is of great service ; but 
 I am sorry to say, that among those who boast 
 the most of it, we often meet with no more than 
 the name. A man may indeed see and own a great 
 number of horses, without being the wiser for it ; 
 because, w^hoever perceives nothing but what the 
 difference of colour discovers to his sight, will 
 never make any other than frivolous observations ; 
 and as the knowledge of many unconnected 
 facts^ is difficult to be acquired, even under the 
 direction of the ablest practitioners, it ought 
 therefore to create no surprise, to see in the prac- 
 tice of every day, the destruction of thousands, by 
 men assuming the title and knowledge of vete^ 
 rinary surgeons* 
 
 A 2 
 
Before the veterinary art had assumed the form 
 of a science, the practice of farriery, was too often 
 attempted where theory was entirely unknown. 
 
 Whenever this happens, that branch of busi- 
 ness may be considered nearly in the same state 
 of perfection, that surgery had attained, when 
 barbers were the general practitioners. At that 
 time, considerable practice was joined to an al- 
 most total ignorance of the construction of limbs. 
 The same may be applied to the art of farriery. 
 Practice alone can never ensure perfection. But, 
 to use a celebrated author's expression, *' The 
 knowledge of it is vulgarly thought so familiar 
 and so common, that you can hardly meet with a 
 man who does not flatter himself that he has suc- 
 ceeded ; whereas, every science is founded upon 
 principles, consequently theory must be indispen- 
 sably necessary. A blind and boundless presum- 
 tion is the characteristic of ignorance ; the fruits 
 of long study and application, amount to a disco- 
 very of innumerable and fresh difficulties, at the 
 sight of which, a diligent man, very far from over- 
 rating his own merit, redoubles his efforts, in pur- 
 suit of further knowledge." 
 
As in respect to the ages ef hor'ses, nothing is 
 more frequent than to see, even judges (as they 
 call themselves) take horses of thirteen or fourteen 
 years of age, for six or seven years old ; these 
 errors show how highly conducive it would be to 
 the public good, for every gentleman to have es- 
 tablished rules on this important branch of vete- 
 rinary science. 
 
 In this treatise, I know that I shall differ greatly 
 in opinion from various respectable and good 
 judges of horses : but whenever I do so, I beg 
 to inform the reader, that I have no other motive 
 than a wish to render the art more perfect, which 
 I am attempting to describe and illustrate. 
 
 And if the principles recommended in it be 
 deemed any way likely to be useful (as I hope they 
 will, if candidly examined and judiciously practi- 
 sed) it will not fail of receiving the support and 
 approbation of the public. 
 
 J. C. Y. S. 
 
VETERINARY OBSERVATIONS 
 
 Olf THE 
 
 AGE OF HORSES. 
 
 THE teeth of a eolt, as well as every other part of 
 the animal, take their origin in the uterus, which cir- 
 cumstance may be ascertained on dissecting the 
 jaws of a foetus, about the time it is foaled, or a few 
 days after, at that time we find the molares or grinders; 
 those in front, termed gatherers or nippers ; and the 
 four tusks perfectly formed, but having a glutinous 
 consistence only. 
 
 The gatherers or nippers, are of the number of 
 twelve, and are those which make their appearance 
 first to the eye ; we find immediately under them, 
 the same number, that succeed the colt's teeth, which 
 are through when the colt is about two years and a 
 half or three years old. 
 
 THE AGE OF HORSES 
 
 May be judged by several particulars, such as the 
 length or shortness of the tusks ; the deepness of the 
 eye-pit, the gi»ay horse turning white, and the black 
 gray, particularly on their head. 
 
9 
 
 "Some people have carried their ridiculous opinions 
 so far, as to advance, that there was a new joint grow- 
 ing out of the horses tail every year, by which they 
 were able to judge with certainty, of their age, if 
 he lived many years ; but as all those remarks are 
 totally destitute of sound practice, I shall not take 
 the trouble of making any observations on the subject^ 
 bat reject them as entirely erroneous, as I shall show 
 hereafter. By experience founded on thirty years of 
 theory and pi*actice, I am persuaded, that the chief 
 characters to judge correctly of the age of horses, are 
 taken upon their teeth, excepting when they are very 
 old, about thirteen or fourteen, at which period, the 
 tusk loses its groove, and the eye pits become hol- 
 low, the hair white, particularly at the head, 
 and the teeth very long and yellow. But before I 
 attend to those things, I must first observe that hor- 
 ses have forty teeth, but the mares being generally 
 without tusks, their number is but thirty-six. Some 
 mares, however, in every country, but more particu- 
 larly in India, have the same number ; that is, the 
 mares have tusks as well as the horses, in which case 
 they are reckoned admirably good, and even superior 
 to geldings for general use. 
 
 But to give a general idea of the teeth which serve 
 to ascertain the age, I shall divide them into three 
 olases, viz; 
 
10 
 
 THE FIRST 
 
 Are those situated in the lateral and posterior part 
 of the mouth; they are called molares or grinders: 
 their use is to grind and chew the aliment; but they 
 have no particular marks which announce a young ot \ 
 old horse, except by their number. 
 
 THE SECOJVD CLASS 
 
 Are situated a little above the barr, or that part of 
 the mouth which receives the bit of the bridle ; they 
 are four in number, one above, and one below on each 
 side of the jaw, and are known by the name of canini, 
 or tusks in the common way. 
 
 THE THIRD CLASS 
 Of the teeth, are placed at the anterior or fore part 
 of the mouth; they are twelve in number, six to each 
 jaw; they are intended for the purpose of cutting 
 grass or herbage : and for drawing hay from the 
 rack, preparatory to mastication — which process con- 
 stitutes the first preparation for digestion ; and their 
 second use is, for forming a characteristic sign of the 
 age of a horse. 
 
 Most authors who have written on the age of the 
 horse, have asserted that he is foaled without teeth, 
 hut this is incorrect 9 he is foaled with twelve teeth, called 
 grinders, three on each side of the superior, and three 
 on each side of the inferior maxillary jaw, and a few 
 days after he puts out four more, which are placed 
 
li 
 
 in the front of the mouth,* they are called pincers ; 
 soon after, that is in ten or twelve days, four other 
 teetJi make their appearance next to the pincers, and 
 take the name of separators,! on account of their be- 
 ing situated between the pincers and the corners ; and 
 about three or four months after the four corneri^ 
 push forth ; after which, the twelve colts teeth in 
 front, continue without any alteration, until the young 
 animal arrives at the age of two years and a half or 
 three years old ,• which circumstance renders it very 
 difficult to avoid being imposed upon, during the time, 
 if the seller, for instance, finds it liis interest, to 
 make the colt appear older or younger than he really 
 is; in which case, every deception in the old countries 
 is employed, as I shall show hereafter. 
 
 About two years and a half, or three years old, a 
 colt begins to shed or change his teeth ; those called 
 the pincers which secondly make their appearance, 
 are the first which fall out ; so that when tlie animal 
 gets three years or three and a half years old, he has 
 four horses, and eight colts teeth, which are easily 
 distinguished, the former being larger, flatter, and of 
 a yellower colour than the others, and streaked from 
 the end quite down into the gum ; further these four 
 horses teeth or pincers, have a cavity with a black 
 spot in the middle of it; whereas the four colts 
 teeth are round and white. When the horse comes to 
 
 ♦ See plate the first, f See plate the second, i See plate the third. 
 
IS 
 
 four, or four years and a half old, he loses liis four 
 separators or middle teeth, and in the room of them 
 he puts out four others, which follow the same rule 
 as the former ones, called pincers.* 
 
 The last milk grinder likewise does the same, and 
 soon after, and very often before this period, the tusks 
 make their appearance. From this time he is no lon- 
 ger called a colt, but a horse ; and if it is a female, 
 on the falling of the corner ni[*pcrs, she drops the 
 name of filly, and assumes the name of mare. It is 
 necessary to remark here, that it is at this period of 
 time a horse is supposed to become useful, arriving 
 at his strength, and being capable of enduring some 
 fatigue ; and as until this period, he is in most coun- 
 tries except this, objected to for the purposes of utili- 
 ty, so it has become a matter of study with dealers in 
 the old countries possessing colts, to make them ap- 
 pear older than they really are by the practice of 
 bishoping, of which I shall treat more fully hereafter. 
 
 At five or five and a half years old, in a natural 
 state, the internal wall of the corner nippers is on a 
 level with the rest, and the tusks are completely 
 come out, which now present a pointed body curved 
 inwards, with the outer surface round and smooth, but 
 the inner surface curved and grooved, which groove 
 continues in the tusk until the period of about tliir- 
 
 * See plate fourth- 
 
13 
 
 Icen or fourteen years, and wlien this is entirely obli- 
 terated, and tlie inner concave surface of this tooth 
 becomes perfectly smooth and rounding, yon may 
 with confidence call him sixteen years old. This as- 
 sertion is made with much confidence, being founded 
 on the practice and experience of thirty years in 
 horses in all parts of the globe. 
 
 The same rule which we have observed in the 
 growth of the teeth of young eolts, takes place in their 
 alterations, and their form, so that wlien a horse ar- 
 rives at six or six and a half years old, the cavity of the 
 lower pincers will fill «p, and the black spots will 
 entirely disappear ;* but whether or not, when the 
 cavities are filled up, the black spots are of no further 
 service to tell the age by. 
 
 Between seven and seven and a half years old, the 
 two middle ones, called separators, on account of 
 their situation betwixt the pincers and the corners on 
 the side of them, fill up in the same manner ,-t and 
 about eight, and eight and a half, the two corners on 
 
 Note. — I believe I am the first person who can confirm the idea 
 of the possibility of telling- the ag-e of a horse until fourteen or six- 
 teen years old; a fact, which is as common among* the natives of the 
 East as for an Eng-lish jockey to tell the age of a colt. And it was 
 during my residence in the upper provinces of Bengal, that I learnt 
 from the natives of that country this mode of judging" of the age of 
 a horse by his upper teeth until that period. 
 
 • See plate fifth, f See plate sixth. 
 B 
 
14 
 
 After which, the upper one begins and follows the 
 same order, that is to say, the two pincers begin at 
 die side to do tlie same :* so the under jaw terminates 
 its process* 
 
 * See plate Seventli. 
 
 The Lite professor Monsieur St. Bell, of the veterinary college 
 of London, was the first who introduced into Englanu this mode of 
 judg-hig- the age of liorses by the upper teeth, after the efTacement of 
 Hie mark, bean or black spot^ by which we are guided in the under 
 jaw, and which he says, he learnt in the riding houses in France, 
 and which was first introduced there by the cavalry ofTicers who 
 brought it from India. 
 
 THE MOLE WHICH 
 
 The Bhramins of tlie East taught iDe was, that at two, and two 
 and a half years old, two years elapsed between the disappearance 
 of each of the next pairs ; that is, as the front upper nippers were 
 fouiKl filled up, the two next were filled up at ten, and that the two 
 upper corners lose their mark when the animal was twelve years old. 
 
 But though the cavity of the teeth do disappear something- like 
 the above, they do not always do it, with sufficient regu'arity, un- 
 less, as the Bhramins informed me, the horse is from his birth, kept 
 jn the same province and on the same provinder,and in the same 
 climi;te wliere he was f )lded. Tliat is, supposing a colt bred in 
 Persia, or in the upper provinces of Oandahar, Moultnn,or any of 
 the upper provinces of the Mogul Empire, and brought from thence 
 say when a colt of four years old, into tJie lower provinces of Ben- 
 gal, the climate, pnvinder, and the general treatment of his mouth 
 from bitting,* and various other causes, would operate materially, 
 so as not to alwaj's be a true criterion to go by. Cut if the horse is 
 
 * The Persians invariably use nothing but the snaffle, but in the lower part of the 
 provinces of Bengal the curb is invaiiably used. The provinder is also difterent. 
 
15 
 
 fill up about nine ol» nine and a half years old ; at ten 
 and ten and a half, sometimes eleven years of a2;e, the 
 two seperators fill up; and lastly, at twche or tv/elve 
 and a half years, the two corners are entirely filled up 
 and the black spots disappear. At ten years, there- 
 fore in a great number of instances, the two inter- 
 mediate upper nippers will be found filled up ; they 
 become very blunt and begin to loose theu* internal 
 cavity, and the fleshy ridges of the roof of the mouth 
 becomes leaner. At twelve, when tlie disappearance 
 of the upper roof is regular, those in the corner are 
 effaced, and tusks very often a rounded ftwffoH, tlic 
 fleshy ridges are still less evident, and the nippers 
 now begin to push forward in a horizontal direction* 
 When a horse lives to be fifteen or sixteen, his inci- 
 sive teeth become nearly triangular, and are still more 
 
 always kept in the same province, state, or dii.trict, where he wns 
 folded, this mode of judging- seldom produces error: and this obser- 
 vation I have myself, from the inspection of many thousand horses, 
 during a residence of near fifteen years in that country, found to be 
 correct 
 
 I also made the same observation on upwards of seven thousand 
 Arabs imported from the Red Sea, and different parts of Arabia, for 
 the honourable East India Company, which passed my inspection, 
 during the last three years of m.)'' residence in that country. It may 
 not be inapplicable to t!ie subject, to make a similar remark respect- 
 ing this country, by the introduction of a Canadiun colt, in the 6i^m& 
 "Way, into the southern state of Virginia, or vise versa. As respects 
 the difference between horses bred in the warm climates of India, 
 and those bred in England, invariably found two years difference in 
 alteration of the effacement of the mark, between the uppa- and- 
 lower jaw. That is, when I should pronoiuice » horse sixteen years- 
 
16 
 
 horizontal, the upper corner frequently beeomeis sawed 
 as it were in two parts. Tliey now are yellow, and 
 sometimes black, and frequently the grinders are so 
 irregular, as to make it necessary to have them rasp- 
 ed, from the inability of the animal to grind and mas- 
 ticate his corn : the eyes likewise become sunk, and 
 the pits over them deep, and very mucli so, if it is the 
 colt of a very old stallion. 
 
 As the animal advances in age, all these appear- 
 ances very much strengthen. The nippers flatten at 
 the side, separate from each other, and become scored 
 and often furrows on their surface ; gray hairs often 
 appear over the eyes, the anus projects, while the cel- 
 lular membrane surrounding it becomes obscured ; 
 the lip$ become thin and i^endent, the lower one being 
 often paralytic. But after the mark is out of the 
 mouth, as it is termed, horses yet appear vigourous, 
 having much of their natural spirit remaining : and 
 when a dealer becomes possessed of such a one he be- 
 comes an object worthy his attention, to give him a 
 more youthful appearance. The principal part of 
 which art consists in the 
 
 old in India, I should pronounce a horse Jn this country or England 
 only in his fourteenth year, this therefore makes a difference of two 
 years. But whether this difference will hold good, as respects the 
 country and the climate of Canada and Vii'ginia remains for fui'they 
 investigation. 
 
OPEEATIOJS^ CALLED BlSHOFIJS^a. 
 
 But as it is my duty to promulgate trutli, and not 
 eri'or, I shall not go to the trouble to describe it, 
 because, the description of tlie operation may have a 
 tendency in a work like this, to promote its introduc- 
 tion sooner than it would otherwise become a prac- 
 tice. I believe it very seldom or ever practiced in this 
 country. But in the old countries it is a very com- 
 mon practice among grooms and jockies. 
 
 The judgment gained by the teeth is sometimes 
 liable to error, as some horses wliolly living on 
 grain, and early worked, must necessarily wear then^ 
 more than others, feeding principally on succulent 
 matter in crib biters, and tliose that champ much the 
 bit this variation may be very considerable, and make 
 not less than two years difference between them and 
 others ; nevcrtlieless, as in the majority of instances, 
 certain and definite so as it is universally attended to^ 
 and certainly useful ; yet a too strict attention to it, 
 leads those who are only moderate judges into very 
 great error, by causing them to reject the most 
 useful and valuable horses, without these marks 
 as being supposed passed his work. Nothing is more 
 fallacious than this ; the common received marks of 
 the age as promulgated by the common sayings of 
 every groom ami jockey, in pronouncing a horse at eight 
 «r ten years of age, grant a criterion of not a third 
 
 K b2 
 
ts 
 
 ©f the natural life of the animal, and not one hjjif or 
 the time in which he is useful, and fully capable of 
 answ ering all the purposes for which this noble animal 
 was intended ; and I truly regret, that it is so inueh 
 the custom in this country, where these generous ani- 
 mals are so very early put to labour, and so unremit- 
 tingly forced to pursue it, that this mark is so mucliT 
 alluded to^ 
 
OSTEOLOGY, 
 
 Giving a description of the teeth, and mode of judging 
 of the age of the horsebox sheep, 
 
 THE teeth are the hardest and eompaetest hones of 
 the hody, and are situated in the cavities between 
 the tables of the jaw bonea, which are called alveoli : 
 they are usually forty in number in the horse, and 
 as I have before observed, in the mare thirty-six, the 
 latter commonly wanting the tusks. They are divi- 
 ded into incisors, cuspidati and uiolares,* as they ar© 
 called by farriers and horsemen, separators or nip* 
 pers, tusks, and grinders. Each tooth is formed of 
 a crown of a neck, and root. The crown is the uppeB 
 l^art, eompossd of a shining compact portion called 
 
 ♦ There is now and then seen a small tooth near the first molarc, 
 which farriers call wolfs leelh, but wliich, by anatomical research, 
 are evidently a species of bicuspides. Fan-iers and dealers in horse£> 
 who are ignorant of the anat omicui structure, have introduced into 
 this country the abominable practice of extracting this tooth, under 
 the idea of curing the inflammation of the eye. The practice 
 is too absurd, to give any credit to it. It is therefore hoped* 
 that every rationa man who will give himself one moments reflec« 
 tion, will never resort to so barbarous a practice. The cuttiiig and 
 raising of the frog from the ground to keep the foot in health ; the 
 cutting of the hair callecl the hooks and extracting, the wolfs 
 tooth, under the idea of curing the infl.imrnation of the eye ; and 
 the absurd operation of burning for ihe lampas, for a disease that 
 
 BQfver eidsted i can by no means be reconciled to common sens^ 
 
so 
 
 enamel, and one less so, of the natui»e of (^ommoa 
 bone : the neck is not very evident in the adult horse, 
 but is more plane in the colt. The roots are received 
 into the alveoli ; and are not spread out into distinct 
 fangs, as in the human subject, but are more case like. 
 
 Most quadrupeds having during life two sets of 
 teeth, a temporaneous, or milk set, and a permanent, 
 or adult set. The first usually appear at, or sooa 
 after birth, as may he seen in plate the first, and the 
 other about the adult perio<l. This change, by which 
 the milk are displaced for the permanent set, is very 
 gradnally performed, some years elapsing between the 
 appearance of the first and the last, by whicli means 
 the animal suffers no inconvenience; where they, how- 
 ever, all, or several of them, to remove at the same 
 time, the animal would probably starve. 
 
 It is a curious fact, proved by various dissection* 
 at the veterinary college, that though the two sets of 
 teeth appear, with an interval of sofne years between 
 them, yet that the rudiments of both are found nearly 
 at the same period ; at least we know, that as soon as 
 the temporaneous set are evident, the traces of the 
 others can be distinguished immediately under them> 
 and are only prevented from making their appearance 
 apparently by the pressure occasioned by the first : 
 thus when one of the first set is drawn, its place i» 
 foon filled up by one of the second set, and this ap^ 
 
pears tlie reason of their early formation, that they 
 may always be ready to fill up any accidental dis- 
 placement, that may occur before that period. Was 
 this not the case, another could not afterwards appear ; 
 for nature who makes nothing in vain, nor keeps a 
 useless part, as soon as a tooth becomes displaced, if 
 another is not immediately springing up, the absorbents 
 remove the alveoli, or socket in which it was placed, le- 
 velling it smooth, that it may not by its sharp edges 
 wound the gums. Dealers generally know this early ap- 
 pearance of the second set when the others are remov- 
 ed, which they frequently practice to make young 
 horses appear older than they are. Providence saw 
 it was essentially necessary that there should be twa 
 sets of teeth, for as they grow but slowly in propor- 
 tion to the jaws, so, had there been but one set, the 
 disproportion in the growth between the jaws and the 
 teeth must have separated, and made them wide apart 
 as the jaws increased ; hence there is given at first a 
 small and less numerous set, adapted to the jaws; but as 
 the rudiments of the secondare larger and more nume- 
 rous, though early formed, so they take up more 
 room, and are actually at this early period situated 
 in the branches of the posterior jaw, so that these 
 necessarily evolve only as the jaw lengthens out. 
 
 The mode of removal of the first is a matter 
 ©f great curiosity likewise, and is occasioned by an 
 absorption of the fangs or roots of the toothy whereby 
 
it falls out, having no support ; this absorption of 
 the fangs or roots of the tooth is brought 
 about by the stimulous of pressure, wliich wt 
 know on the true principles of physiology excite* 
 these vessels most powerfully ; this presure is occa- 
 sioned by the tooth underneath, as this second tooth 
 becomes evolved and hardened, so as to be more hard 
 than the roots of the tooth above, and as by its evolu- 
 tion and growth, it presses on these roots and becomei 
 absorbed, but while it is not perfectly hardened, and 
 does not reach to press the temporaneous roots, they 
 remain secure, and these teeth do their offi<je ; and as 
 this evolution is the permanent set, and are different^ 
 in the different individual teeth, so the removal of 
 the temporaneous is stimulated at different periods^ 
 hy which the animal is not inconvenienced as he must 
 be if the removal of the whole took place at once. 
 
 The living powers in the teeth are kept up as ia 
 bones in general, by nerves and blood vessels, which,, 
 on dissection may be traced entering the hollows ia 
 the roots. It is evident, that the vessels must be con- 
 siderable, from the great Ijcemorrahages that some- 
 times follow from the extractions of the human teethe 
 The nerves enter by means of the anterior and pos- 
 terior maxillary canals as we have described.* Nor 
 
 •' Some of the nervous branches furnishing the human teeth, are 
 passing- under the ear above tlie tubrosity of the jaw ; and It is by 
 dividmg or burning- the ntrve,at this part (a dangerous practice) 
 *hat itinerant practitioners pretend to cure tke tooth ache, which 
 
S3 
 
 have we any reason to doubt that they have ahsor- 
 hcHt ; but, on the contrary, we see that their growth 
 is increased until the adult period, and the roots of 
 the temporaneous removed ; and hence there is every 
 reason to suppose their earth is absorbed and re-dc^ 
 posited as in other cases, for we find in the human 
 when a tooth is drawn, the next can branch out so as 
 nearly to fill up the space, so careful is nature in sup- 
 plying waste. The sensibility in teeth is well enough 
 known among ourselves from the disagreeable eftect 
 of acids, and certain sounds setting them, as we term 
 it, on the edgo, and the latter must arise from the 
 peculiar connc'xion between some of the auditory 
 branches of thefiftli pairof nerves probably; but many 
 oftJiese phenomena are wholly without our reach. 
 The effect of sand or other gritty matter, between 
 the teeth, likewise demonstrates their sensibility fully, 
 wliicli is also evinced by their feeling under inflamma- 
 tion so much longer. The teetb of qnadrupeds are not 
 so liable to diseased decay as the htiman^ yet now and 
 
 an the under jaw sometimes succeeds. And we have cases related, 
 wheH the filing- of the teeth (so strong is the connexion with the sen* 
 llment principle) has occasioned convulsions ; and a child, whose 
 gums were ianced, for tlie purpose of permitting- the freer egress 
 of the tooth, has just shivered and died. Upon the principal of 
 a?ialogy of feeling, how great and severe must be the pain of re- 
 sorting to that nbominablc practice, among tlie i;;noranl practition- 
 ers of extracting the wolf's teeth. All most all horses have wi.lPs 
 teeth in uil parts of the world, but i c.n cunfidently assert that I 
 Qever knew an instance wliere they did harm. 
 
S4< 
 
 then it doe§ so happen, and a horse is found with ap- 
 pearance of pain, and a dislike to the act of eating. 
 
 The rudiments of tlie teeth may he detected very 
 early in the emhryo, in the form of mucus, involved in 
 a membrane ; bony matter is gradually thrown out 
 in this, and the mucus then becomes absorbed. The 
 enamel is a particular deposit, not following altogether 
 the nature of bone, and is placed differently in differ- 
 ent animals. In the human, and carnivorous brutes, it 
 is placed exteriorly as a covering to the teeth, giving 
 them firmness. In gramnivorous animals, on the con- 
 trary, it is placed in perpendicular plates, within the 
 body of the teeth ; where, by its great hardness, is al- 
 ways keeping up ridges and a rough grinding sur- 
 face : for. as there is by this means alternately a per- 
 pendicular layer of common bone, and plate of enamel, 
 so as the bony part is wearing more readily than 
 this, there is always a number of inequalities remain- 
 ing on the surface of the grinder, admirably adapting 
 them for the purpose intended, and by this firmation 
 remaining perfect to the last of the animal existence.* 
 
 • We may from hence learn, that the enamel is not for the pur- 
 pose principally of preser\'ing the teeth dentists constantly insist 
 on ; perhaps any particular preservative quality in it, is one of the 
 least of its uses, or the teeth would seldom be free from decay. In 
 the horse it is evident there are parts entirely deprived. If, as at 
 the depressions on the broad surfaces of the grinders, as on the sur- 
 face of the worn incisive or nippers, yet, from observation neither of 
 th€8e become cwioui. In our own front teeth it is the same, wear- 
 
25 
 
 The teeth are tlie only bones without the hivestiire 
 of periosteum, being in their own crown ami neck 
 uncovered, but their roots are surrounded by the pro- 
 per membrane of the gums. 
 
 THE LVCISIVE TEETH 
 
 Are SIX in number to each jaw, whicli In ohier 
 books of farriery, before tliis art had assumed the 
 form of a science by the establisliment of the London 
 veterinary college, were called the nippers ; the next 
 gatherers, or separators ; and the outer, corner teeth; 
 but it w ould be better to say, the first, second, or 
 third incisives, beginning at the corner. Tliese tcetli 
 are curved, which is favourable for the pressure tliey 
 undergo ; the upper being more so than the lower ; 
 
 ing from an edge to a flat surface by age, but never decaying in 
 this part ; when they do, it begins at the neck, where the enamel 
 exists ; and the first carious spot that is seen in a grinder, is usually 
 in the deep depression in the middle, where, the enamel can suffer 
 no abrasion ; add to which, that decay in a tootli may generally be 
 stopped, if the whole of the decayed portion is filed away. Now, it 
 is a well known fact to the people of this country, that some tribes 
 of Indians always keep their teelh filed to a point, yet seldom is a 
 decayed tooth seen among them, at the most advanced period. 
 The real and principal use of this substance, is by its hardness to 
 give firmness to the teeth, and perhaps it has a similar use with 
 he cuticle or outer skin, to defend the inner substance of the troth 
 from external applications, thereby blunting their sensibility, which 
 incariousor abraded teeth is very great. 
 
 C 
 
S6 
 
 they have two surfaces, an inner and outer, the inner 
 is rounded, but the outer has a groove up the middle. 
 Their upper surface presents a hollow, which as it 
 wears away in some degree at certain periods, is re- 
 garded by some as a criterion of age, and in fact, 
 forms the best mode of judging of the number of 
 years tlie animal has lived, but is a very uncertain 
 one as to his real value. The incisive teeth differ 
 from each other as respects appearance ; the cor- 
 ner ones are nearly triangular ; these have likewise 
 a species of artificial side, or internal wall, which is 
 on a level with the rest for sometime after it appears. 
 
 THE CUSriDATES, C^iJVIJVJE OR TUSKS, 
 
 Are, as I before observed, usually wanting in mares, 
 and are four in number, one on each side of the lower 
 and upper jaw, on what is called the barr, and in the 
 space between the incisive and molares. Those of the 
 anterior jaw are especially nearer the nippers than 
 the posterior. 
 
 There are but one set of these, which appear at 
 the adult period of four or four and a half years old 
 (and in warmer climates considerably sooner) grow- 
 ing slowly, and when com|ileteiy evolved, presenting a 
 curved appearance, turned inwards, with an outer 
 plane surface, and an inner one that has two perpendi- 
 cular groovei with an intermediate rising, the end is 
 
S7 
 
 pointing, which by age wears away, with the in- 
 ternal gvooves, leaving the lusk blunted, and the 
 internal surface equal with the outer ; this therefore 
 may be a guide, when a horse is suspected to have 
 been bishoped, 
 
 THE MOLARES OR GRIXDERS 
 
 Are twelve to each jaw (and are the teetli that are 
 born with the coU,) The upper are larger and stronger 
 than the under, as they form the fixed point 
 upon which mastication is performed ; their upper 
 surface presents nearly a long square, the first not so 
 complete as the rest, being nearly ti'iangular in many 
 instances ; this surface is very uneven from the alter- 
 nation of the enamel and bony portions ; and has the 
 anterior teeth hung over the posterior, so the ridges 
 of the one set are received into the depressions of the 
 other, by this means permitting the mouth to shut 
 completely in a state of rest. 
 
 These teeth of horses sometimes become ca- 
 rious, but this is seldom ; at times there is like- 
 wise there situated before the first molare a small 
 hicueplSf called wolf's tooth, which from the irre- 
 gularity of its growth, has by grooms and joekies 
 been thought to do harm in injuring the eye ; nothing 
 but a want of anatomical knowledge could have pro- 
 duced the introduction of so gross an error, it having 
 
28 
 
 no connexion with the eye, and in fine sliould never 
 be noticed.^ 
 
 The grinders sometimes wear away, so as to 
 prevent mastication, when tin's is the case, the 
 point should be filed smooth, by the veterinarian ; 
 but the breaking them away Mith a hammer and 
 cMssel, as performed by the common smJth, or the ex- 
 traction of teeth in this way, is not only a very danger- 
 ous but a brutal practice; for from the great strength 
 with which they are implanted in the alveoli, the jaw 
 js always more or less fractured in these cases; for it 
 should be remembered, that the roots though equal in 
 number to the human fangs, are yet formed into one 
 cone-like body, which renders the extraction of them 
 \erj difncult. 
 
 We have already observed, that in dissecting a foe- 
 tus, we find all the teeth perfectly formed, and that 
 they are extremely soft, having a jelly-like consist- 
 ence only, resembling little bladders. Every one of 
 these little bladders, if I may be allowed the expres- 
 
 * The blacksmiths of this city, many of whom have assumed a 
 krio-ivledgeoi' this branch ofscience^ universally persuade and often 
 prevail on people to extract this tooth, under the idea of curing- 
 inflammation of the eye ; but this cruel, barbarous and shameful 
 practice should be strongly reprobated by men of sense. I have 
 repeatedly been applied to perform this operation, but I never 
 have yet committed so gross an error in practice. 
 
29 
 
 sion, are intended to form as many teeth ; for whicli 
 purpose nature has provided them with a considera- 
 hie numher of blood vessels, &c. The hardness of the 
 teeth increases gradually, accordini^ to the age of the 
 fcetus ; probably on account of the natural disposltioii 
 of the fluid to incasterate, which properly it is pos- 
 sessed of. 
 
 The mucus fluid which surrounds each tooth, ac- 
 quires also the same degree of consistence, and con- 
 tributes to the formation of the white or enamel of the 
 teeth, in the same manner that the blood distribu- 
 ted to the skin, produces hair, and to the foot, horn, 
 
 As to the black spots in the middle of each tooth, 
 we can form no otbor opinion than that they are the re- 
 sult of the extremity of the blood vessels, obliterated as 
 soon as the air penetrates into their cavities ; which 
 operation occasions their superfices to become dry and 
 liard, and therefore rise to the formation of a black 
 spot. 
 
 From this arises the difference between the teeth 
 
 of a horse and the human subject, their origin beinu: 
 
 the same in both ^ but those little cavities w hich exist 
 
 also in the last, are entirely olditerated in the extt-r 
 
 nal extremities of the teeth, in consequence of their 
 
 flat and sharp figure : whilst in horses on the contrary, 
 
 C 2 
 
30 
 
 their front teeth are square, and quite open at their 
 external extremities. 
 
 If this fact be well ascertained, we may venture to 
 say, that the black spots situated in the cavity of 
 each tooth, are caused by the extremity of their 
 blood being dried and hardened by the air; and 
 if this operation has been performed too soon, or 
 with too much violence, or if the fluids, wliich serve 
 for the growth of the teeth, become too susceptible 
 of dryness (which is supposed to be the most proba- 
 ble opinion) in either case, the substance of the tooth 
 will be too compact, the juices intended for its 
 growth will find obstacles, and the last cause will 
 keep the cavity open for life. This opinion is sup- 
 ported by experience ; which proves that the teeth of 
 horses, whose cavities remain open, are much harder 
 than others that are not so. 
 
 As to the black spots of the teeth, they will never 
 wear off, if it happens that the mucus which surrounds 
 the little bladderg or teeth above mentioned, acquires 
 a degree of solidity sooner than the bladders them- 
 selves ; the small vessels, which serve for the nourish- 
 ment of the tooth, suffer too great pressure by the 
 mucus humour, intended in its origin, for the forma- 
 tion of the white or enamel of the teeth. This cause 
 seconded by too great hardness of the tooth, will 
 
leave it in a morbid state, and the black spot will 
 never wear off, though the cavities are filled up. 
 
 "We may therefore pronounce with good authority, 
 that this effect is produced by a premature and too 
 hard pressure on the extremity of the blood vessels of 
 the tooth. 
 
 Mares and geldings are more subject to be defec- 
 tive in the mark for their ages than stallions, because 
 their fibres, as well as those of the females^ of every 
 other animal, are weaker than the male. 
 
 OXEJ^ A^^D SHEEP 
 
 Have their ages observed by their horns, which arc 
 more conveniently examined, and more certain in 
 their appearances than their teeth. Oxen have a per- 
 manent and temporaneous set of horns. Sheep have 
 only the permanent set. 
 
 In neat cattle the age is sufficiently indicated by 
 the general appearance, till the third year, when the 
 temporaneous fall, and are replaced by a permanent 
 pair. These appear with a kind of button at the end ; 
 and as each succeeding year's growth protrudes this 
 notty extremity from the head, a circle or round ring is 
 formed ; consequently in these animals, if three years 
 are reckoned for the button at the extremity, and an 
 
3S 
 
 additional year for every circle, we shall have the age 
 of the beast ; though it is not unusual among the 
 knowing graziers to scrape or rasp down thes& 
 rings, to deceive the unwary. In those kine who 
 have no horns, the general appearance are considered, 
 with the whiteness and equality of the teeth, which in 
 the old are uneven, yellow, and sometimes black. Neat 
 cattle have incisive teeth, only in the posterior jaw ; 
 nature deeming it necessary to have no anterior nip- 
 pers in them, for they gather long grass principally, 
 which they wrap into a turf with their tongues, and 
 apply it to the under or posterior jaw, and cut it off 
 with their under teeth ; they change their tempora- 
 neous set earlier than the horse, and get a pair 
 every year, till they are five years old ; thus having 
 eight nippers at this time, when they are called full 
 mouthed. 
 
 Sheep have their age indicated by the horns and 
 teeth. The horns in those who have them, are more 
 usually examined ; these form the criterion, and a 
 year must be counted for every one of the rings. 
 Where they have no horns, the teeth do not change. 
 Mr. Buffon, I think, says, they have in their third 
 year, four broad teeth (they before begin their second 
 dentition at twelve months) in the fourth year six, 
 and in their fifth year eight of the same kind. But 
 this does not appear correct ; for it is observed that 
 at twelve months, or one shearing, a lamb puts out his 
 
83 
 
 new front nippers, and every succeeding year, or 
 shearing, he gains two more until he is four years 
 old ; having then eight in his lower jaw 5 his upper 
 jaw like that of the ox is without them. 
 
 The age of goats may be determined in the same 
 way ; and in the deer, it is told by an additional branch 
 appearing in the palm, in the antlers or horns. 
 
 ^' 
 
ON CONTRACTION, 
 
 FOUNDER AND RUNNING THRUSH ; 
 
 THEIR CAUSES, BEST MODM OF TREATMENT AND CURE, 
 
 The present professor of the veterinary college, very 
 judiciously began his career by teaching the mode of 
 preventing some of the most destructive diseases that 
 occur to the horse, but more particularly contraction, 
 which ends in the ruin and destruction of many thou- 
 sands of horses, before even one half of their services 
 have been required of them. If therefore, this evil 
 can be remedied, which it may be, by the application 
 of the patent bar shoe and cold bath, for a couple of 
 hours every day, how many horses in the course of a 
 few years may not be saved to government and their 
 owners. This was at once showing his own ingenuity, 
 and rendering himself eminently useful to the public. 
 On my first arrival in this city, I lahoiiredr^ard to 
 walk in the footsteps of my ivorthij preceptor, Intfor 
 the want of proper support, from those who ought to 
 have consulted their interests, it was through the com- 
 bined villainy and artful chicanery of the smiths and 
 coachmen of the city frustrated. Now, as prevention 
 must be ever superior to cure, so must the means 
 that prevent diseases of the feet, be more important 
 than those that cure them } it was this that led pro- 
 
Plal€2. 
 
 f'aUnt Bar Shot. 
 Q C 
 
 ^ Cvntracted h^o/' s?unf. m/fi /7u- r,7Unt D.n- Slic 
 s1u>iyirt^ ffu vandty from. B A> C. 
 
 thf CUfis 
 
 K^ 
 
35 
 
 fessor Coleman to apply his attention to the physiology 
 of the foot, and the art of shoeing. Let us now examine 
 the causes of this destructive disease. The horse, of 
 all other animals, contrihutes most to the pleasure and 
 advantage of man ; hence as soon as h« arrives at 
 maturity (and very often before that period) he 
 is brought from a state of nature to a life of art, and 
 thereby doomed to labour and fatigue, which of course 
 subject him to a variety of diseases, from which in a 
 natural state he would forever remain exempt. The 
 diseases to which his fore feet are liable, in particu- 
 I lar, deserve our attention, being more exposed to in- 
 jury from a number of causes, than any other part of 
 the body. 
 
 An inquiry therefore, into the causes of these dis- 
 eases will in some measure lead us to proper reme- 
 dies ; or what is of much greater consequence, will 
 point out the means by which many of them may he 
 jivevented ; as diseases, and more especially those 
 in the horny substances of the feet, are more easily 
 prevented than cured. For it is not with horses, as 
 with the human subject, where, if the life of a man 
 J can be preserved, though a limb be lost, he may 
 nevertheless, be a useful member of society ; but 
 unless a horse be preserved sound and active in 
 all his limbs, he is only fit for the meanest drudgery 
 or becomes a burden to his owner. The greatest ne- 
 glect, with respect to the management of horses feet. 
 
 I 
 
36 
 
 is not atiending to >\hat is most natural to them, 
 whether in shoeing, stable management, or in the means 
 most commonly used to preserve them cool, moist 
 and sound ; for we find that horses in a state of nature, 
 running at liberty, have always good sound hoofs, 
 and are never troubled with diseases of the feet. 
 Hence it is evident that besides faults in shoeing, 
 there must be during their confinement in the stable 
 some material mismatiagement. 
 
 This assertion I shall now endeavour to prove, by 
 making a few observations on the means commonly 
 used by people to preserve them moist, sound and 
 tough, by the use of greasy and oily applications. 
 
 On the alsurd practice of stuffing, greasing and 
 oiling horses hoofs. 
 
 There are many things practised, with regard to 
 the management of horses in general, which custom 
 alone has established, and are now universally es- 
 teemed so essentially necessary, that they are receiv- 
 ed as undoubted maxims, and submitted to without 
 any inquiry into the reason or propriety of them 
 That a man who shall recommend a free cir- 
 culation of air, the laying aside the use of cloth- 
 ing, or for horses to stand without their litter during 
 the day time, and all with the sole view of securing 
 
them agaimt disease, runs the hazard of being con- 
 sidered as a Jit iiihahUcmt for St, Jjiike^s or Bethh- 
 hem hospitaif than his having pretensions to the pos- 
 session of his rational faculties. However, with re- 
 spect to all greasy or oily applications, so often pre- 
 scribed and recommended by authors who wrote be- 
 fore the establishment of the veterinary college, I 
 must be so singular as to dissent from this received 
 maxim, and show, that all such filthy applications to 
 the hoofs of horses, are rather pernicious than saluta- 
 ry. It is to be observed, that when young horses are 
 taken up from the fields, their hoofs are cooli sound 
 and tough. These are found from experience to be 
 good qualities ; but horses are no sooner introduced 
 into the stable, than their hoofs are greased or oiled, 
 sometimes every day ; and if they are kept much in 
 the stable standing on dry litter, without getting tlu>ip 
 hoofs even moistened, it of course makes them grow 
 hard, dry, and brittle, and when they come to be shod, 
 in driving the nails causes them to split oft* in chips* 
 Now, if these same horses, with dry, hard, brittle 
 hoofs were turned out to graze in the field (which in a 
 city cannot always be done) their hoofs in lime would 
 become, as they were originally in a state of nature, 
 sound, tough and good, I would therefore ask all ad- 
 vocates for greasing and oiling hoofs, what is the 
 cause of this change ? It certainly cannot be said 
 that the hoofs were greased while at grass ; It there- 
 fore must proceed from the dew weif and inoisture o£ 
 
38 
 
 Hie grass, of which water is the principal ingredient; 
 from tlie same cause do we not also find that the 
 hoofs are always in a better state at the end of the 
 winter, than after the dry months of summer? We also 
 know as a certain fact, of which we have daily 
 pro€ifs, tijat when ail other means have failed, we 
 turn horses out to grass to recover their decayed brit- 
 tle hoofs. And we find also tliat the hind feet of horses 
 fi»om standing in the moisture of their own dung, 
 are always in better condition than the fore feet, 
 which stand upon hot and dry litter. 
 
 It is also very well known to physiologists, that the 
 hoofs of horses are porous, and that insensible per- 
 spiration is carried on tlirough those pores in the 
 same manner, and according to the same laws of na- 
 ture that take place in other parts of the body. Now, 
 it is a fact very well known to almost eveiy one, tliat 
 greasy and oily medicines applied to the skin of the 
 human body prevent perspiration, which is always at- 
 tended with some bad consequences : upon the same 
 parity of reasoning, then, why will it not hold good, 
 that greasy applications will shut and close up the 
 pores of the hoof, by being absorbed into their sub- 
 stance. Hence the natural moisture which should 
 nourish the hoof is prevented from arriving at the sur- 
 face, on ^hich account, it f)econies as if it were dead, 
 consequently tlry, brittle and hard. 
 
39 
 
 The original practice of greasing*, or oHin«c licrses 
 hoofs, probably took lis rise from observing that grease 
 or oil softens dead substances, such as boots, liarness, 
 bridles, &e. But this does not apply to the hoofs of 
 horses, there being a great diiference between dead 
 and livijig parts of animals ; the latter having juices, 
 &c. necessary' for their own nourishment and support, 
 whiJe the former require such applications as wilt 
 preserve them from decay. Hence it is we see that 
 horses standing for any considerable time, upon hot, 
 dry litter in the stables, having their hoofs greased 
 or oiled, and kept dry, are subject to so many dis- 
 eases of the feet ; whilst the hoofs of those horses 
 that go to the cart and plough, though never greased, 
 i\ ^re not only better in every respect, but are less 
 subject to complaints which are always the at- 
 tendants on obstructed perspiration. Another prac- 
 tice amongst grooms equally pernicious, is the stuffing 
 up horses hoofs with hot resinous and greasy mix- 
 tures, under the notion of softening them. Various 
 are the prescriptions recommended ibr this purpose, 
 many of which are of a quite opposite nature, for the 
 purpose intended. 
 
 Thus, after hard riding on dry, flinty, hard roads, 
 •when the feet cannot be otherwise than in a hot in- 
 flammatory state, in order to cool and soften the hoofs, 
 equal parts of turpentine, rosin, grease, ke, are 
 melted together, and applied sometimes nearly boil- 
 ing; hotj others apply grease and tar, poured 
 
40 
 
 boiling hot on the soles, mixed with tow under the 
 shoe, with si>linters of wood, &c. Let me now ask any 
 man of sense, are these articles of an emollient cool- 
 ing nature ? or are they not on the contrary, hot and 
 irritating, calculated rather to increase than decrease 
 the inflammation of the feet, and therehy render them 
 brittle, dry and hard ; and by obstructing the natural 
 perspiration, to produce many bad consequences ? 
 There is also another great impropriety in gentlemen 
 suffering their grooms to stuff the feet with rotten 
 dung and stale urine. This, it is true, is moisture, but 
 is it not moisture of the very worst kind, on account 
 of the salts and volatile alkali contained in the mire? 
 which in itself contributes much to hardening and 
 drying the hoofs, in place of softening them, besides 
 the otlier bad effects that arise to the frog, &c. from 
 the rottenness of the dung. But without commenting 
 further upon the various compositions and pompous 
 prescriptions recommended by the smiths and grooms, 
 I trust sufficient has been said to convince the judg- 
 ment and good sense of every owner of a horse, never 
 to despise for its simplicity, hot and cold water, it be- 
 ing more cooling and moistening to horn than any 
 other substance in the Materia Medica. 
 
 The fact speaks for itself, by their acting in the 
 very teeth of their own principles, when they apply it, 
 with a view of nourishing and softening (as their 
 phrase is) the horn of the foot. Now, the fact is, that 
 oil has no power of softening horn in the smallest de- 
 
41 
 
 gree, for every onekno^\s that it is the common prao- 
 tiee of all comb makers, and other artificers wlio use 
 that material in their husiiiess, to employ warm 
 water, or the vapom^ of water, in order to produce the 
 softening effect upon it ,* for it is also well known that 
 all the coarser oils become converted into a kind of 
 Tarnish when applied to the feet of the living horse, 
 in the course of a few hours, in consequence of the 
 steady evaporation of the thiuner parts of the oil, and 
 its absorption of oxygen from the atmosphere. It is 
 from this cause therel'ore, tliat the animal is precluded 
 the advantage, which must evidently result from the 
 cooling and refreshing effect of water, which may 
 come in contact with his hoofs as he travels on the 
 road, unless he were to remain with them immersed 
 in the fluid, by which means his hoofs might occasion- 
 ally become cooled, though not softened by its absorp- 
 tion. It is also impossible that occasionally meeting 
 with the fluid in this w ay on the road, can have the ef- 
 fect of cooling his feet, while thus heated in a varnish- 
 ed case, except during the momentary space of time, 
 which is occupied in its trickling off* the hoof, as no 
 portion of water can be arrested by the varnished 
 surface. The effects therefore, of evaporation, wliieh 
 are so surprisingly great, in the production of cold, 
 must be nearly if not utterly precluded ; which makes 
 it manifest, that in this way, and upon this principle, 
 the use of oil must inevitably contribute to heat the 
 
 foot. Now, if these facts be admitted (and I do noi see 
 
 d2 
 
4:3 
 
 how they can be denied) it will follow as a natural 
 consequence, t. at the use of oil must he the means of 
 rendering the hoof hotli liard and brittle, as well as 
 hot; foe if the oil operating as a varnish, precludes 
 the effectual application of water to tlie horny box, 
 the only substance in nature, calculated to soften it, 
 the fact is clear, and all wonder ceases, at the frequent 
 occurrence of contraction and sand crack, which daily 
 and hourly are to be met with throughout the country, 
 to the injury and destruction of so many thousand 
 animals. 
 
 If therefore, the practice of oiling and greasing of 
 herses hoofs were to be laid aside entirely in this coun- 
 try, and the more rational mode of immersing the 
 feet in a tub of water adopted, as it now is, throughout 
 the British army, the different veterir.ary colleges 
 throughout Europe, as well as most of the pri- 
 vate and public stables in England, and the use 
 of all kind of sto])pings that consist of grease> 
 tar, turpentine, rosin and such like pernicious ma- 
 terials, be utterly discarded, T repeat again how 
 often a valuable horse might be saved ot his owner, 
 and how many thousands to the country ; for it 
 is a notorious fact that more than one half the 
 horses in the United States, more particularly those 
 used in the mails and cities, are nearly rendered unfit 
 for service before they are ten or twelve years old. 
 
48 
 
 If this mode of treating tlie feet were generally 
 adopted, witli the principles of shoeing which I have 
 so earnestly endeavoured to establish, we should sel- 
 dom see running thrushes, which, though rarely the 
 cause of lameness, are nevertheless, the concomitants 
 of contracted heels and quarters ; and tliough no ap- 
 plication to a thrush, can be of use, unless the frog 
 get pressure upon the ground, without which, it can- 
 not long remain healtliy. yet as people are anxious 
 about some dressing, the oxymel of verdigris com- 
 monly called mcl ^Egijptiacnm, may be applied on a 
 piece of tow , and if a piece of cork as hereafter re- 
 commended, dipped in tar, be placed upon this dress- 
 ing, so much the better. This application not only re- 
 moves the fetor of the thrush, but by its moderately 
 stimulating quality, it induces that condition of 
 the sensible frog, which is so favourable to the repro- 
 duction of sound horn. Whereas tar, turpentine, and 
 all greasy applications applied in the common way, 
 though they may correct the fetor for a short time, 
 will eventually exasperate the disease, by increasing 
 the inflammation and encouraging the separative act ioa 
 of the sensible frog ; by which means, the possibility 
 of that organ resuming its original healthy action of 
 forming new horn instead of matter, will be elFectual- 
 \j^ precluded. It is highly necessary to remark here 
 that the use of blue vitriol and such like violent as- 
 tringents, as are so commonly used by every groom 
 and coachman; through the city, which may stop for 
 
44* 
 
 a wliile the running of the thrush, evidently does it 
 so suddenly, as frequently to occasion diseases of the 
 eyes, and very often canker of the whole foot, which 
 eventually renders the poor animal entirely useless, 
 without tlie owners ever knowing the causes. 
 
 We shall now proceed to give a more general idea 
 of the uses and function of this singular organ, which 
 for years, even long after the establishment of the 
 veterinary college, appears to have remained entirely 
 unnoticed until Mr. Coleman introduced his patent 
 frog for the cure of contraction and thrush; still every 
 groom and jockey in the country will attempt to de- 
 fine it in his v/ay, and tell you "that it is natural 
 to all horses to drain off the bad humours." But 
 whether salutary or beneficial, I will only under- 
 take to say, that whenever thrushes do occur, they 
 not only prove extremely trouI)lesome, hut from the 
 tenderness and lameness which they occasion to feet 
 affected with them, horses are often rendered unfit 
 for service, both from the injudicious mode of shoeing, 
 and from the treatment they receive on their re- 
 turn to the stable. 
 
 . But to explain this more particularly, there is in 
 the middle of the frog a cleft or opening, by which 
 the heels have in the natural state, a lateral degree 
 of confracti(^n and expansion 9 especially when the 
 horse treads his heels o» the ground ; hepce when 
 
45 
 
 jieprived of this pressure, the sensible frog ceases to 
 perform id proper function, and pain and inflammation 
 are the consequence, producing that wasting and 
 rottenness of its external covering which falling off 
 in detached pieces, never, until restored to its proper 
 and natural pressure, acquires its proper solidity ; 
 hence that tenderness which ever after remains^ 
 when any hard substance touches that part of the 
 foot, and consequently subjects the horse to lameness, 
 too frequently brought on by the slothful neglect and 
 bad management of the groom. Fresh air and regu- 
 lar exercise being as essentially necessary for the 
 health and preservation of this organ as any other ; 
 for running thrushes like other diseases to which 
 pampered horses are too frequently subject, are sel- 
 dom or ever known in those countries where horses 
 range at large, neither are they so frequently to be 
 met with in the country among labouring horses, 
 whose exercise is regular, and whose hoofs are so 
 frequently exposed to coolness, wet and moisture in 
 comparison to those kept in public cities. 
 
 With respect to the 
 
 CURE OF ELW^YJJVG THRUSHES. 
 
 Where it has been of long standing, it cannot be 
 cured but by removing the first cause, which is to 
 give the frog pressure, and when sound, keeping the 
 
48 
 
 • 
 feet cool and moist with simple plain water, and at 
 the same time having recourse to internal remediesy 
 by way of revulsion, suck as bleeding, purging, and 
 duiretie medicines ; and ajypropriating such a degree of 
 pressure to the frog, as its diseased temkrnesss will 
 admit. In some cases, there is not only a discharge of 
 foetid matter from the cleft of the frog, but often times, 
 and at the very same time, a greasy discharge from 
 the round protuberences of the heels, and hollow of 
 the pastern joints. It is therefore necessary in such 
 a case to make a distinction, for when of a soapy 
 consistence, thick and clammy, it is either canker or 
 grease, which renders another mode of treatment 
 necessary ; and proper means, such as before advised, 
 must be used to correct the habit of body ; and should 
 it already have become so malignant in its disposi- 
 tion as to tcrrainate in canker, and become very 
 foetid, poultices of pulverised charcoal must be ap- 
 plied, and the dressing to consist of the mildest es- 
 eharotic powders, such as white and blue vitriol,, 
 burnt alum of equal quantities mixed together with 
 burnt charcoal made of horse radish, and sprinkled 
 on the diseased part. In respect to the nature' of 
 thrushes, there has been a difficulty attendant on 
 their formation, which before the establishment of 
 the veterinary college, created much perplexity from 
 ihe views which were then entertained of that dis- 
 ease : but from the indefatigable attention and re- 
 searches of professor Coleman, we are happy in say- 
 
47 
 
 kig that this disease as well as canker, grease, &e. 
 is now perfect!}' under the command of the veteri- 
 Bary surgeon. 
 
 This important organ, which as before observed, 
 had not been so much noticed, nor received any dis- 
 tinct appellation, until Mr. B. Clark's writings made 
 their appearance ; and in his elegant work on the 
 foot of the living horse be has ventured to call it 
 the frog stayer, or holt, which like an insuted tooth, 
 more firmly holds the horn to the sensitive frog; 
 for whilst the sensitive frog falls into the inverted 
 arch of the horny frog, and is thus firmly held in its 
 place, this part entering in the opposite direc- 
 tion into the sensitive frog, serves reciprocally to 
 confirm and fix those parts together and preserve 
 them from external injury and dislocation. 
 
 I hope that this discovery respecting the nature of 
 thrushes, will not be unacceptable to those who are 
 k) any way interested ahout horses, as it not only sets 
 in a clearer light the mode of treatment and cure, 
 when the horse is labouring under the complaint, but 
 what is more to be estimated than either, shows how 
 simply it may at all times, and at all seasons of the 
 year, be so easily prevented and kept in health. Yet it 
 is a curious and at the same time a?i iiicrcCible fact, 
 that though almost every p'^rsoncon . ^'' sant with horses 
 appears to know the value of wide heels, a sound broad 
 
48 
 
 frog, and a cool state of the hoof, yet few can be 
 made sensible of tlie necessity of adopting or even 
 resorting to the means that ^\iil preserve the foot in 
 this desirable condition. 
 
 Now, the common practice adopted by most of the 
 grooriis of this city of letting their horses stand 
 through the day upon litter, must materially con- 
 tribute to accelerate this contraction, which it is 
 of so much importance to guard against ; for, if the 
 litter be the least wet, it must become exceedingly 
 hot, in consequence of the putrefactive fermentation 
 engendered in it, which has now been so accurately 
 ascertained, from various exp'^riments tried at 
 the London and Dublin veterinary coileges, not 
 only to be productive of contraction, but even glan- 
 ders, inflammation of the lungs and eyes, and otlier 
 diseases. It is therefore evident that next to bad 
 shoeing, the use of the litter is evidently the grand 
 excessing cause of rimning thrush, which is gene- 
 rally connected with contraction of the heels and 
 quarters. Now should any one be inclined to 
 doubt, that the application of wet litter is capable 
 of altering the condition of the frog and hoof, yet 
 surely no one will hesitate to admit, as before ob- 
 served, that wet litter, on account of its acrimony, 
 must increase the thrush, as well as contraction; 
 for which reason horses through the day sljould 
 stand on the pavement or plank of the stable which 
 
49 
 
 should be swept clean, and as tlie litter would 
 by this means be the less fitted for the purpose of 
 manure, on account of i(s being less imbued with ihe 
 animals urine (the admixture of which with the straw, 
 is of more importance to the farmer than that of the 
 ffeees,) and stables in Europe are now constructed, 
 so as to carry off the urine into a proper receptacle, 
 by which means it can be appropriated to the pur- 
 pose of any compost, instead of being permitted to 
 mix itself with the litter, or run to waste- But be- 
 sides contributing to the contraction of the feet, as 
 well as to produce and expedite running thrush, tlie 
 practice of letting horses stand through the day on 
 litter, also lays them more open to the attack of 
 that sudden infiammatioa of their feet, called 
 
 FOUJS^DER, 
 
 Which it must be observed, is to be distinguished 
 from that chronic species of founder, that depends up- 
 on gradual contraction of the heels and quai'ters, it is 
 slow in its progress, and consequently so in the lame- 
 ness attendant upon it. For the soft cushion which the 
 litter affords to the feet, (independent of the affair of 
 heat) must render tliem less capable of bearing vio- 
 lent and sudden battering upon hard roads, during 
 a long journey. 
 
 And by way of illustrating this fact, it may not be 
 iDiproper to remark, that it is no very uncommon cir- 
 
59 
 
 eumstance, even for horses that have been some time 
 at grass, during which time they have of course trod 
 upon a cool, as well as elastic surface, to be at- 
 tacked with founder, in all their four feet, after 
 being suddenly rode a great distance on a hard road, 
 especially during hot and dry weather. 
 
 For the five hundred sensible lamin8e sur- 
 rounding the anterior surface of the coffin bone^ 
 and the five hundred horny laminee surrounding 
 the posterior surface of the hoof, which are so 
 intimately connected with each other, and which 
 contribute so much to the support of the animal^ 
 are scarcely ever stretched to their utmost ex- 
 tent, while the horse is at grass, both on account 
 of the gentle nature of his voluntary motion in the 
 act of grazing, the springiness of the surface of 
 upon which he treads. When, therefore, these elastic 
 sensitive fibres within the hoof, are called upon under 
 the circumstance before described, to perform sudden 
 and violent action, the frequent reception of shocks, 
 to which they have for so'jie time been unaccustomed, 
 produces that high active inflammation, which running 
 on to separation, frequently occasions the cast of the 
 hoof, and not uncojnmonly ends in mortification of 
 the part and the death of the animal. 
 
 Having therefore entered so far on the subject of 
 founder, I shall proceed to give its true definition, to- 
 gether with its 
 
M 
 
 Causes, best mode of treatment and cure, 
 
 And that on principles never before defined or 
 made public in this c ountry* 
 
 THE TEEJl FOUJ\^J)EE, 
 
 Is indeed frequently applied to lame horses, and 
 that in a very vague manner, and without any deter- 
 mined or fixed meaning ; for, when a horse shows 
 any impediment in the motion of his fore legs, he 
 is by most people pronounced to be foundered, 
 whether he is really so or not ; that is according te 
 what is termed or understood by the word founder^ 
 for want of making a proper distinction between dif- 
 ferent diseases of the feet ; and if we consult authorB 
 who wrote on the subject, before the establishment of 
 the veterinary college, we shall find their accounts 
 Tery dark and imperfect, calculated more to bewil- 
 der the imagination than convey any perfect idea of 
 the disease ; and hence it is that so many errors are 
 committed in practice to the ruin and destruction of 
 so many fine horses in the public cities of the United 
 States. 
 
 When a horse is attacked with this disorder, he al- 
 ways shows great restlessness, is hot and feverish. 
 Leaves much at the flanks, breathes quick, has a 
 strong quick pulse, and groans much when moved 
 
52 
 
 about, at the same time shows threat symptoms of 
 pain, sometimes in one, but more frequently in both 
 fore feet ; for which reason he lies down much ; but 
 when forced to move forwards he draws himself to- 
 gether, as it were into a heap, by bringing forward his 
 hind feet almost under his shoulders, in order to keep 
 the weiglit of his body as much as possible from rest- 
 ing on his fore feet. 
 
 This disease has always been considered a most de- 
 structive one, and what has rendered it more unfor- 
 tunate, is, that farriers and others have always mis- 
 taken it for an affection of either the loins or chest, 
 and hence their applications being made to those parts, 
 the disease has usually terminated in death or incura- 
 ble lameness ; many of them have also thought that 
 the grease or fat (as they call it) of the body was 
 melted, and failing downwards produced lameness ; 
 and no sooner is the horse attacked with this com- 
 plaint, than ro wells and blisters are immediately 
 applied to drain off the supposed humours, the shoes are 
 also ordered to be made hollow, so that boiling grease, 
 tar, turpentine, &c. are applied by way of stuffing or 
 stopping the soles of the feet, already pared to the 
 quick. 
 
 It is universally allowed that the causes of this 
 disease proceeds from too violent exercise upon 
 pavement, stony ground and turnpike roads, and to 
 this we may add bad shoeing, from unequal pressure 
 
53 
 
 upon the horny sole, pressed between two hard bodies, 
 tlie weiglit of the animal above pressing on the coiRn 
 bone, and the horny sole below coming in contact 
 with pressure from the stones, and then permitting th© 
 horse to stand on snow, and to go into cold water. It 
 also often occurs after riding through snow for some^ 
 time, and then bringing the animal into a warm 
 stable : the small capillary vessels of the feet are (juite 
 unable to bear this change, and tbe feet cons quent- 
 ly fall into a state of inflammation. It, I believe, also 
 frequently occurs from the inju<!icious mo 'C of suf- 
 fering horses to eat and di'ink too much when warm.* 
 
 * It has been a g'enerally received opinion among" velerlnarp 
 practitioners in England, that neither food nor water, giv.ng" in im* 
 propt-r qualities and at improper times, had the influence of being, 
 the sole cause of this disease- And I do not hesitate to confess 
 that I have for many years been of the same opinion. But 
 from several conversations which I have had on this subject 
 with Mr J. Tomlinson of the Lancaster line, whose opinions and 
 judgment respecting horses, their general treatment, diseases, &c, 
 I very highly estimate, I must candidly confv ss, that I have on se- 
 rious reflection, seen cause to value his arguments, which have, 
 came so home, as to cause me to reflect and seriously to investi^-ate 
 the subject, and endeavour to ascertain if possible, whether disten- 
 sion of the stomach from over feeding, or a sudden check from to© 
 large a quantity of cold water thrown into tlje atomach while hot, 
 could have the power of suddenly diecking a return of the circula* 
 tion in the lacteal system, and thereby also preventing a return of 
 the circulation through the capillary vessels of the feet, could - 
 have a tendency to heighten considerably the disease by tyr^.- 
 
&4b 
 
 All these causes are more powerful when a horse is 
 plethoric or in full habit of body, and not accustom- 
 ed to his regular exercise. 
 
 fever or inflammation this stoppage naturally produces in the la» 
 miiisc of the foot. 
 
 If this should be the case, the only rational way which T can ac- 
 count for it, is this t the whole contents of the abdomen of the 
 horse, but more particularly the stomach and colon, is very powtr- 
 fully supplied with lacteals and lymphatics, wi^ich we find on 
 dissecting, to be long- slender pipes, surrounding in every direction 
 the intestines, cireuUiting' a milk white fluid, distended with chyle 
 or lymph. They are in some parts to be found as large as commoa 
 goose q'lills, at the same time there are many not larger than the 
 smallest arteries in the body, of course any thing pressing upon 
 them, as when the stomach a^d colon are distended with food and 
 water, it must of course impede the circulation, and thereby stop- 
 ping the return of the blood from the feet cause the smaller ves- 
 sels surrounding the laminae and sensible sole to distend and some- 
 times to burst. The same extremities of t e lacteals have likewise 
 a conimunicalion with the capillary arteries of the guts, the lac- 
 teal veins also have valves at several distances, which stop the re- 
 turn of the blood from the intestines and the extremities, conse- 
 quently, why may not distensiun of the stomach from either 
 food or water, have the p(;Wtrr of stopping the return of the circu- 
 lation, through the capillary vessels of the feet, and if so, it can easi- 
 ly be accounted for why food and water improperly or imprudently 
 given may not have the influence of greatly accelerating the dis« 
 ease cailed founder (at the same time, I say that founder originates 
 from various other causes, more than the latter) as a further cor- 
 Toboration however, of tht probability of the above statement, IwiB 
 mert- ly state some other circumstances of analogy in other diseases, 
 %bere it is well known that distension of t)ie stomach has thi& e^ 
 
65 
 
 Prom what has already been said respecting this 
 disiase, it is evident that the circulation is increa- 
 sed and the blood chiefly determined to the fore feet, 
 attended with symptoms of violent pain and inflam- 
 mation. 
 
 feet. We all know that gout in the human subject causes a pain in 
 the great toe ; but gout is a disease of the stomach, arising from 
 indigestion, when that organ is improperly distended with roast 
 beef, wine, &c. We also know that sleepy staggers, mad stag- 
 gers and stomach staggers are all yjrodiiced from nearly the same 
 cause, which by stopping a return of blood from the brain, causes 
 vertigo, delii-ium, madness, &c. from the several capillary vessels 
 of the brain being obstructed. I therefore say, that if his obstruc- 
 tion has the power of distending and causing rupture of these small 
 vessels of the brain, why should it not, by the same parity of reason- 
 ing, be as likely to have the same effect on 07ie extremity as the otherf- 
 and if so, I must of course become a convert to Mr. Tomiinson*s 
 ©pillion Mr. Tomlinson, it is true, is not a regularly bred veterina- 
 rian, nevertheless, if he or any other man, from a long course of expe- 
 rience and observation among horses, can advance an argument suf- 
 ficienily demonstrative of the probability that food and water has 
 this effect in the horse, it is my duty to stand ope n lo conviction 
 and acknowledge the position correct It has however, been accu- 
 rately ascertained by an experiment tried by professor Coleman, 
 during my residence at the college, that liquids do become absorbed 
 hy the deeper seated absorbents of the intestines. 
 
 On or about the first of April, 1814, a condemned animal was kept 
 three days without water, at the d d of which time, three paiL of 
 ink water was prepared and given to the horse, and he drank nearly 
 the whole of it, the horse was killed ten minutes after he had drank 
 it, and on examination it was found that the coloured liquid could 
 be traced though all parts of th« system. 
 
 J.C.V.S, 
 
60 
 
 THE CURE, 
 
 Therefore, must be commenced by diminishing the 
 circulation, giving slabs internally, with glisters and 
 an opening diet, together with the following emollient 
 poultices: 
 
 Linseed pulverised, - - 10 ounces, 
 
 Meal or flower, - - 15 ounces. 
 
 Mixed up with vinegar. 
 
 Or a poultice made of mashed potatoes with some 
 linseed meal moistened with vinegar, I have found to 
 be attended with very beneficial effects. They are to be 
 applied warm all round the hoofs, to soften and keep up 
 an equal perspiration, but by no means to resort to 
 that abominable practice of paring the sole and frog 
 to that excess so frequently had recourse to ; to pare 
 away the hardened surface of the sole in order that 
 the poultice may have the desired effect, by increasing 
 the perspiration through the pores is all that is neces- 
 sary. In all violent inflamr.ationsof this nature, whe- 
 ther from this or any other cause, nothing more con* 
 tributes to give relief than foeaf bfeeding from the 
 cannon or meticarpal vein which runs down on each 
 side of the pastern joint, or scarifying the lateral carti- 
 lages deeply in their whole extent, and putting the foot 
 ©p feet in warm water, diluted either with vinegar, 
 sugar of lead, or sal amnsoniac ; and a mild blister 
 rubbed round the coronet, 1 have found in ail desperate 
 eases attended with the most heueiicial effect. 
 
57 
 
 There is however, a species of founder, which so 
 far as relates to the time occupied in its approach and 
 ^evelopement, holds a sort of mean hetween acute 
 and that chronic inflammation which sometimes proves 
 fatal in a day or two, and which always accompanies 
 more or less contraction of the heels or quarters ; this 
 kind of founder is from its nature incurable, as it is 
 not, as professors Coleman and Peal observe, in the 
 power of art to restore it to its original elasticity, 
 parts which have become converted into bone. Mr. 
 Bracy Clark, however, in corroboration of this, has 
 shown us, what was not so much as suspected before 
 his profound investigation of this interesting and in- 
 tricate subject was made public by his experiment!, 
 and that is, that the coffin bone itself in consequence 
 of its imprisonment within the hoof, undergoes a ma- 
 terial alteration i^ its structure, though those igno- 
 l^ant of the anatomy of the foot, would never have sus- 
 pected this, for want of a knowledge of the difference of 
 structure in a natural coffin bone, and one that has suf- 
 red from contraction. Now, let any one go on the com- 
 mons and pick out two feet, the one shall be the foot 
 of a colt whose habits and work till ten or twelve 
 years, has been chiefly in the country, the other shall 
 be that of a horse whose work and labours have been 
 conflned to the city and turnpike roads, macerate the 
 two feet and examine the difference of structure. 
 
 I have in my possession several of these bones, 
 which may be examined at any time, and by any one 
 
58 
 
 I 
 
 desirous of investigating the fact, to eonvince tlicin- 
 selves how erroneous those ideas formerly were on 
 this subject ; a visit for that purpose would amply re- 
 ward their trouble. 
 
 A representation of these bones, and their difference 
 of structure, will sufficiently exhibit the cause of our 
 want of success in restoring the feet by sending out 
 horses to the meadows with a view of opening their 
 heels 5 and the great change that shoeing produces. 
 
 The general figure that these bones exhibit, will 
 show how materially they have suffered, the organi- 
 zation of its surface being almost perfectly obliterated; 
 the sides of the bone, from a wide crescent, have now 
 by the powers of absorption, become oval, or of a pa- 
 rabolic figure, and from partially sloping have be- 
 come nearly upright ; tliis exquisitely beautiful con- 
 figuration, has been termed by Mr. B. Clark during 
 his ten years experiments to ascertain these facts, the 
 patiloba, which exhibits all round the bone a beauti* 
 ful collection of ragged cells and cavities, for the ad- 
 mission of veins, arteries, nerves, &c. 
 
 People in general may not, but physiologists well 
 know there can be no regeneration or restoration of 
 parts so altered. 
 
 It is the absorption of this beautiful structure, that 
 causes the bone t« become too small for the whole of 
 
S9 
 
 tiie cavity of the hoof; the hoof therefore being com- 
 posed of horn and not of bone, expands and becomes 
 too large for the altered bone within, and the horse 
 when brought up from the meadows and put to 
 work becomes pomme convex footed, by some termed 
 foundered. But notwithstanding that some feet do 
 expand on being turned out to grass, yet we find that 
 such feet soon begin to contract again when the horse 
 is brought back into the stable ; which circurastamce 
 depends partly on the previous disposition to contrac- 
 tion, which the use of the shoe has induced on the 
 living parts within the hoof, and partly upon the dry- 
 ing and shrinking, which takes place in the horn, and 
 the consequent loss of elasticity at the quarters. 
 
 Since it is therefore proved, that the coffin bone 
 does undergo a sensible diminution in its size and 
 alteration in its structure, from this power alone, we 
 ought, as Mr. Clarke and professor Peal observe, to 
 be the less surprised at the change that takes place iit 
 the soft and elastic parts within the hoof, from the 
 operation of the same cause. Having therefore in- 
 sisted upon the advantages that will result from 
 keeping the feet immersed in the bath, it may natu- 
 rally be expected that I should give some direc- 
 tion about paring and preparing the feet when a long 
 run of grass is determined on, either for the purpose 
 of restoring the feet or b^^nefiting the general consti- 
 tution of the auimai* In these respects I trust i bare 
 
60 
 
 sufficiently explained myself in my first publication 
 on shoeing; I will however add (and I cannot say more 
 if I were to write till doomsday, than repeat the text, 
 of my worthy professor Coleman, wlien he lectures 
 on the foot of the horse) the whole is combined in four 
 words, genthmen ghe the frog pressure, I tlierefore 
 repeat that when the frog becomes decreased, restore 
 it to health by the application of the mel ^Mgifptia- 
 eiim, and give partial pressure till you get it into 
 that state ; and when so, and the frog has grown of 
 sufficient size to come in contact with the ground, 
 and on a level bearing with the shoe, the more pressure 
 you give it, the less you will find it inclined to disease. 
 For experience, which after all, could alone decide 
 the truth or falsehood of our speculative opinions, has 
 long since, by the experiments made by Mr. B. Clark, 
 convinced us that no decisive or permanent advantage 
 is to be obtained from the practice in any case where 
 the animal has been shod and driven on pavement for 
 any considerable length of time, and we are now 
 convinced from dear bought experience, reluctantly 
 to add testimony of its beingfrequently productive of 
 infinite mischief, as well from wliat has been before 
 stated by inducing fresh derangement of the living 
 parts, which did not exist in such feet before they 
 were placed in their new predicament. 
 
 But lest it may be supposed, that I reprobate alto- 
 getUer the plan of turning horses out to grass with* 
 
61 
 
 out shoes on, I admit with many other of nay col- 
 leagues, that it may be had recourse to occasioiialiy 
 with advantage, when it is intended to keep them out 
 for a few days or a few weeks only ; and even in this 
 case, provided horses are turned into low and swampy 
 ground, it is douhtful whether it would not upon the 
 whole be more wise to let the shoes remain on, provided 
 care be taken to remove tliem often enough to prevent 
 their getting into the interior edge of the crust. If how- 
 ever, the popular opinion and prejudice which exists 
 on this point, cannot be removed, would it not be 
 well to refrain from having them shod for a week 
 or ten days after their return to the stable, which 
 might be the means of mitigating the evils which 
 too commonly result from the ordinary practice. 
 
 In my former work on shoeing, I noticed that 
 tshoeing, let it be practised on whatever principle 
 it may, is sure, sooner or later to produce an evil. la 
 consequence of fixing an unelastic piece of ii-on to 
 an elastic piece of horn, a circumstance whiclj sim- 
 ple as it may appear never perhaps occurred to many, 
 though dealing in horses all their lives. It should be 
 understood that the foot of the horse in a state of na- 
 ture never comes to its proper growth or size until 
 the end of the fifth year, it then becomes a perfect 
 
6S 
 
 circle, and as broad from heel to heel as from heel 
 to toe. 
 
 Whereas, in England (though there the practice of 
 latp years is now much do«ie away) and particularly 
 in this country, horses are put to work and shod at 
 three, and sometimes before three years of age ; by 
 wliich means many diseases in many shapes are 
 brought on, long before the fooi; has attained its per- 
 fect shape and symmetry: it is in consequence of 
 this absurd practice tliat thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands of horses in this country are ruined, or render- 
 ed use'iess to their owners long before they have ar- 
 rived at one third the period of existence assign- 
 ed them by Providence. It is however, with some 
 satisfaction, I am in this place able to ohserve,^ that a 
 more politic system has for some years began to pre- 
 vail among the more enlightened in England, who va- 
 lue their horses, and who now do not shoe them until 
 the fifth year, but use them with tips only, until that 
 period ; this principle I have endeavoured to inculcate 
 as much as possible, but people immediately cry out, 
 <^0, that may do very well in England, but it will not 
 do in tb.ls country upon turnpike roads, &c." People 
 unwilling to see will always keep their eyes shut, and 
 people unwill:<ig to listen and learn are always 
 inclined tx> deafness. Let me now ask those people 
 who reason thus, how is tliis done in many parts 
 of the world, but more particularly in India^ 
 
63 
 
 where the country is principally cooiposed of rock, 
 where shoes are never known ; and as a farther corro- 
 boration of this truth, it is a well iinown fact, that 
 before the Cape of Good Hope fell into the hands of 
 the British, shoes were entirely unknown : and where 
 can we find a eonntry more rocky or mountainous 
 than that part of t!)e world. This circumstance I my- 
 self ascertained from many of the most wealthy in- 
 habitants of the Cape, when it was given up to the 
 British in 1802, on my return from India. Being anx- 
 ious to prove this, as it is a circumstance of import- 
 ance, though doubted by many, I can if necessary, 
 produce gentlemen residing in this city, who for many 
 years have carried horses to the West Indies, who 
 have informed me that many of them carried to those 
 islands from this country, have after a short period of 
 time acquired such a hardness of hoof, as to render 
 shoeing entirely unnecessary. 
 
 The grand secret lays here, and I wish to be under- 
 stood that I do not mean that horses under all circum- 
 stances, are to go entirely without shoes, but only as 
 circumstances will admit ; or that tips be applied at 
 the toe instead of shoes, until the foot has arrived at 
 its proper growth : for instance horses worked on the 
 Jersey sands do not stand so much in need of shoes 
 as those horses used in the city, nor do hoises at 
 cart or plough in the country need shoes so much as 
 
6-i 
 
 those working ill the city or on turnpike roads.* AU 
 that I contend for is tiiis, and that I will maintain, 
 that if all horses were left to run at large in the fields 
 until five years old, (or shod with tips only, if worked 
 before that period,) and the knife entirely abolished 
 and the rasp only used until that period, the foot 
 might in nine cases out of ten, be kept without con- 
 i. action until at least one third the natural period of 
 their lives (say twenty four years) instead of which nine 
 horses out of ten are contracted and rendered almost 
 useless before they have attained their tenth year. 
 There is however, one argument to be taken into con- 
 sideration to reconcile (his reasoning, and that is, that 
 a foot in a state of nature never wants cutting, be- 
 cause nature performing her own work, throws off 
 ull guperfluGus parts by a natural exfoliation: there- 
 fore if you never cut, but use the rasp instead of a 
 knife, you thereby assist nature, in performing her 
 own work, whereas hy the cutting you alter nature, 
 and (hereby disease her ; by cutting you also invite 
 the growth of horn, which a rasp round the edges 
 would not do. The most plausible reason for cutting 
 instead of using the rasp, is this, that from the de-^ 
 fence afforded by the shoe, the parts of the hoof are 
 growing, and having no means oi' wearing away it 
 
 ♦ It is also well known that the British j^overnment, as well as 
 ihe India company are now raising regiments of eavalry, with 
 tips odIv. 
 
65 
 
 must be removed before llie shbe be applied again* 
 The sole being held firm b;v' the nails eiijhraoing the 
 wall, its flakes have not the opportunity ol:*discliarsi;ing 
 themselves, and will also want removing with the 
 knife ;the sole thickens under these artificial circum- 
 stances and the frog of course, say tlie smiths, should 
 undergo the same discipline in being pared, with 
 the other parts ; and this reasoning, before late 
 experiments taught us better, has met with an 
 acquiescence from the commencement of the shoe- 
 ing art, perhaps even to this day. The projecting 
 solid appearance of the frog, its consistence re- 
 sembling that of leather or hard cheese, cutting 
 with a smooth and polished surface, invites the knife^ 
 and causes it to be more sliced by the smith on that 
 account than it otherwise would be ; and the smith 
 as well as people in general arrogating to themselves 
 a superior knowledge to the Almighty, fashion it 
 to the conception they have formed in their own mind> 
 of the figure it should receive ; whereas if people 
 would only be contented to follow and imitate nature ^.^i 
 as near as possible, they would seldom ein* so often as 
 they do. As respects the wall of the hoof, it should be 
 remarked, that where there is a demand for its wear 
 it grows as rapidly as when in a state of nature, and 
 exi>osed to the ground ; but when shod, it looses this 
 power to so great a degree, that in many horses a few 
 thin slic s only can be removed, and the frog being of 
 slewer growth thaii the wall, and the heels clesin^ 
 
66 
 
 from the compression, its circulation and health is af- 
 fected, and the faihire of its growth and that ragged 
 oblong figure we so often see in contracted feet are 
 the necessary consequences. Let us now see what 
 those rags are? and how they are formed, and we 
 shall then in truth see whether cutting of the frog 
 is necessary or not. That there are no rags or scales 
 on a natural frog in a sound heathy state, is evident, 
 and so it is almost always found to be in frogs at the 
 eommeneement of shoeing, if the animal has been left 
 to run until, or near the time that nature intended for 
 its devciopcment But if a slice only is once taken 
 away from this part at this time, and its exterior 
 coat removed, and the interior one exposed, it being 
 *if a more moist succulent nature, quickly dries in 
 the air and lieat of the stable, ^c, and contracting 
 eracks their edges, in drying, reflect or turn back and 
 create a ragged uneven appearance, this being also 
 removed by anotlier deeper incision, getting nearer 
 and nearer to the quick (or sensible frog underneath) 
 ut each cutting, till the frog flayed and diminished ia 
 its size, becomes so driy, brittle and hard, as to ren- 
 der it too tender to come ia contact with hai'd bodies 5 
 and by this imprudent obstinacy of smiths in general, 
 they by a few cuts of their abominable buttrass, in a 
 few minutes, do more mischief than nature caa repair 
 m as many months. 
 
6r 
 
 There are however, at times exfoliations of the 
 frog which take place, but this is only an effoit of 
 nature to rid herself of its superfluous growth j 
 Indeed it has for many years of late been the 
 wish of professor Coleman and Bracy Clark, to 
 bring that part of their studies and experiments 
 before the public, as gives me this opportunity 
 of laying before the public, a general view of 
 those things, as being the most useful sort of ad- 
 dition to the stock of knowledge we are in possession 
 of, and which wiJl account to many for the frequent 
 claims I have already made to the views or the dis- 
 covery of new objects, when 1 made my attempt in 
 introducing a new system of shoeing in this city. It 
 will however, no doubt soon be seen, how far I wa» 
 correct, and how far it will yet stand the test of in- 
 quiry, which cannot but prove of public utility by 
 improving a knowledge of this branch of the shoeing 
 art, so much wanting improvement ; although I am a 
 considerable sufferer by this attempt, it is yet to be 
 hoprd that time \ull lead to a better treatment of th« 
 biped as well as the quadruped. 
 
PROPOSALS 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF VETERINARY FORGES, 
 
 FOR IMPROVING THE SHOEING ART 
 IN THETJiriTED STATES, 
 
 ON PROFESSOR COLEMAN'S SYSTEM, 
 
 AS KOW ESTABLISHEU AT THE 
 
 ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE OF LONDON, 
 
 And at the different Teterinary colleges of England, 
 Ireland, Scotland, France^ Germany, Spain, Portu- 
 gal, Russia, and Briti$h India, 
 An establishment of tliis kind not being generally 
 known to be of such public utility, or national im- 
 portance, as it really is, the author of these propo- 
 sals conceives that a short statement of its views, and 
 objects may be an acceptable offering to those unac- 
 quainted with it. The extreme ignorance and incompe- 
 tency of the greater part of practitioners on the dis- 
 eases of horses, and the many formTdable diseases^ 
 which destroy or render useless so many of these 
 noble animals in ail our public cities, long before the 
 end of one third of the natural period of existence as- 
 signed them by Providence, induces the autlior re- 
 spectlully to invite the different agricultural societies 
 ©f the union, or any respectable body of men, to form 
 ibemselves in a society for the establishment ©f forges 
 
69 
 
 and for the improvement of this branch of the reteri- 
 iiary science , and to provide smitlis to be men of 
 respectable characters and good workmen, for carry- 
 ing the same into effect, in conjunction, with a scicn- 
 tific practitioner of the veterinary art, under whose 
 direction and controul this establishment shall b* 
 conducted. 
 
 The grand object of establishing these forges, is not 
 only to cure and prevent corns, thrushes, canker, 
 founder and contraction, (five of the most formidable 
 diseases to which the foot of the horse is subject,) but 
 also to introduce and disseminate the true princi- 
 ples and practice of the shoeing art, and to open 
 a school of instruction, to which eiiy and country 
 smiths from all parts of the United States, will 
 be invited to attend, and receive private lectures, 
 on the anatomy, economy and functions of the foot of 
 the horse ; by which means this useful and domestic 
 branch of science, may gradually become dispersed 
 throughout the union. Medical students also will be 
 invited to render themselves useful in the neighbour- 
 hood where they reside, by receiving instruction in the 
 anatomy and physiology of the horse, and by learning 
 how to perform operations and to administer medi- 
 cines, where no regular and scientific aid can be pro.-, 
 cured . Sensible of the advantages which may be made 
 to result by their obtaining a knowledge of compara- 
 Mve anatomy in this way, the young student may witk- 
 
•ut disparagement to his profession, be hereby ren- 
 dering a useful piece of service to himself and his 
 country ; we may then hope to see that these things 
 will be in a fair way of reformation altogether ; and 
 that cloud of ignorance whi(*Ji has so long obscured 
 and stigmatized the practice of the profession in this 
 part of the world, wil' gradually be dispelled; and 
 that in a few years there will not be a city, town or coun- 
 try village in tkie United States, but will boast of a prac- 
 titioner, whose abilities may do hoiiour to his profession. 
 Such an establishment lias been the means of saving 
 many thousand fine horses in the British cavalry, and 
 might be commenced on a small scale, and at a small 
 expense : the patronage of the public will be neces- 
 sary to carry it into full pffcct. lireat and unremitting 
 exertions it is to be hoped will be made by every one 
 who sets a value on his horse er his dog, whether for 
 pleasure or as objects of commercial concern and do- 
 mestic importance, and by tliose, who froju pa- 
 triotic motives are zealous to promote the prosperi- 
 ty and welfare of their country. It must also be taken 
 into consideration, that a veterinary establishment of 
 this nature may be supposed to clash with the preju- 
 dices as well as the interests of the smiths, grooms 
 and coachmen, who are most likely to think the es- 
 teblishment an infringement on their rights; conse- 
 quently they will endeavour to frustrate its execution. 
 The opposition of such men was the principal cause of 
 the failure of an attempt to form such an establish- 
 meut in this city. 
 
71 
 
 Cities, country towns and Tillages and proprietors 
 of mi'il and stage coach estahlishments, will find 
 an object of great commercial, as well as domes- 
 tic importance, to procure smiths, who will receive 
 instruction and establish themselves on their dif- 
 ferent lines. In a political point of view, also, this 
 establishment may hepome of great importance, 
 which must be sufficiently manifest ,• so fully of late, 
 was the utility of it estimated by the government of 
 Great Britain, in their military and mail departments, 
 that an annual grant of fifteen thousand pounds step- 
 ling, has been voted for the support of the veterinary 
 college, and for the education of youth in the shoeing 
 art. Proprietors of such establishments will therefor© 
 find it their interest to transmit their proposals to 
 Dr. Carver. Happy for the profession itself, and 
 much more happy for the community at large, if this 
 object could be effected ; and it is hoped that the time 
 is not far distant, when it may be honoured by a le- 
 gislative consideration, and that the present genera- 
 tion, may see the practice rescued from the igno- 
 rance and barbarity, by which it has so long dis^^ra- 
 ced this part of the world. Any number of gentle- 
 men, therefore, in any of the public cities of the union, 
 who may feel desirous of stepping foward to sanctiou 
 and carry this plan into full elfect. will on application 
 to Dr, (Carver receive any sei'vices that may be in 
 his power. Smiths and others desirous of receiving 
 
 ■'^ 
 
7S 
 
 instruction, will of course apply to the controuling 
 committee, when such shall be established, for an in- 
 troduction to Dr. Carver, and who on receiving the 
 same according to such rules and regulations, as may 
 be hereafter suggested by them, and the veterinary 
 surgeon, shall be supplied with models of all the 
 college patcntshoes, hammers, counter sink nails, 
 punches, fullers, instruments and drawing knives. 
 Gentlemen travelling through the United States, and 
 who are subscribers to this plan, and raay be desirous 
 of giving encouragement to an establishment for dis- 
 seminating this useful and necessary branch of know- 
 ledge, will be entitled to a set of the model patent 
 ihoes, with instructions from Dr. Carver for their 
 uses and application. 
 
 Country smiths, and other respectable young men 
 desirous of entering on this branch of the veterina- 
 rian art as well as to Searn the surgical and operative 
 parts of the profession, may find it an object well 
 worthy their own interests to qualify themselves. 
 
SUBJECTS 
 
 WHICH WILL BE TAUGHT AND DEMONSTRATElJ 
 
 TO EVEUY SMITH, 
 
 ON RECEIVING INSTRUCTION, 
 *ir rilE J^EW VETERlXJlUr FORGE, 
 
 1. An introduetorj lecture giving a general view 
 of the nature of the shoeing art. 
 
 2. The views commonty entertained of the shoeing 
 art, and causes of its defects hy vavious characters, 
 supposed to Jiave a knowledge of these things. 
 
 S. Ueasonings founded on tlse natural foot, but 
 which are irrelevant on the foot being shod. 
 
 4. Various principles of shoeing, as they arc called, 
 examined. Good and bad shoeing pointed out. 
 
 5. One principle only — to follow nature as near as 
 can : that defined and .how to be obtained. 
 
 6. Fitting shoes and driving nails, discretional cir- 
 cumstances only, pointed out. 
 
74 
 
 7. Tlie difference of the foot after shoeing ohserv- 
 cd, with a scries of nine years experiments for ac- 
 curately ascertaining the effects of the shoe after be- 
 ing shod, by B. Clark, F. L. S. and Y. S. 
 
 8. A variety of different experiments on the foot of 
 the living horse, explained during my residence at 
 ^he college. 
 
 5. A description of the foot and hoof of the horse, 
 in Avhich tlieir true nature is endeavoured to be estab- 
 lished, (not merely as a defence for the foot, but as a 
 non-resisting machinery for the exertions of the ani- 
 mal and repose of the weight,) pointed out and ex- 
 plained. 
 
 10. Of the heels : apparent offices of the heels as 
 elastic beds for the weight of the animal, explained 
 and pointed out. 
 
 11. The extraordinary state of the foal's foot, 
 wliich does not obtain its full developement until the 
 fifth year, explained and pointed out. 
 
 12. How the weight is received and distributc^i 
 over the basis of the foot exhibited, explained and 
 pointed out. 
 
 13. Wall of the foot described ; its curious termi- 
 
75 
 
 iialioii in the centre of the foot, explained and pointed 
 out by dissection. The bars as elastic processes also 
 defined. 
 
 14. Of the frogj how a space in the foot is provided 
 for it by nature, as the elastic liey-stone of the foot, 
 demonstrated by dissection. Also the cleft of the frog 
 and the frog stay described. 
 
 15. Cushion of tlie frog and its uses described and 
 demonstrated by dissection, 
 
 16. An extraordinary and hitherto undeseribed 
 part, the conoary frog band, pointed out by dissection. 
 
 17. The frog stay described by dissection ; the rup- 
 ture of that organ described and pointed out as the 
 real cause of running thrush, by B. Clark, V. S. 
 
 18. The frog shown to possess the power of main- 
 taining its own figure ; and the curious doctrine of 
 shoeing smiths in this respect, pointed out. 
 
 19. Their reasons for cutting the frog explained? 
 and the remarkable interruption to the growth of 
 it from that cause, pointed out. 
 
 20. How ascertained ; its causes suggested, and the 
 cutting of it unnecessary, nearly in all cases. The 
 
76 
 
 tVcqucnt cause of ragged frogs pointed out. The 
 natural full grown frog, never ragged if never cut, 
 pointed out. 
 
 21. The singular eifect of slioeingon the frog de- 
 scribed, with its natural exfoliations considered and 
 explained. 
 
 22. T!ie different degrees of pressure tJie frog 
 ought to receive when in healthy aud when in a state 
 of disease, pointed out. 
 
 23. The solc^ its singular mechanism exhibited by 
 dissection. 
 
 2i. Tliiekens by sljoeing, and the wall also retard- 
 ed and disturbed in its growth bj shoeing, explained. 
 
 25. The horny and sensible laniinfe described by 
 dissection. Five hundred of the former surrounding 
 the anterior surface of I'ic wall, with five hundred f 
 iliG latter plates of horn surrounding the posterior 
 5»uri*ace of the eoHiu bone, and coming in contact with 
 each othui', is shown to support the w hole weight of 
 the animal, proved by experiments at the veterinary 
 
 O' 
 
 26. Tlic bearings of (he natural hoof on the 
 ground; its natural exfoliations, &c. pointed out; 
 Us^ natural fonu at ilve years old, as broad from heel 
 
77 
 
 to heel as from heel to toe, also explained ; never of 
 an oblong; form in a state of nature. 
 
 27. On standing in the stable ; how it proves the 
 entire destruction of the foot for want of proper sta- 
 ble treatment and management. 
 
 28. On shoeing — on neat shoeing — on levelling the 
 toe — on expanding of feet ; how to be obt'<;ined — to- 
 gether with a closer examination of the nature of 
 these things pointed out and explained — how and why 
 the shoeing art has for so many ages been involved 
 in a cloud of darkness. With conclusions how this 
 branch of the veterinary art may be drawn from con- 
 tempt to respectability. 
 
 ®; %' 
 
CONCLUSIOI^. 
 
 All f believe, that can now be added upon this im- 
 portant subjeet is, that while the abominable system 
 of shoeing, now in use among tlie smiths of this city, 
 shall continue, aud while they are able by their com- 
 binations to frustrate every attempt to introduce new 
 principles, and lessen the sufferings of this faitli- 
 i'ui slave to our labours and pleasure, it will be useless 
 for any further attempts to be made ; for it must now 
 be evident from what has been premised, that it is 
 from t he practice of bad shoeing, now so obstinately 
 persisted in, that all the diseases here mentioned', 
 particularly contracted fee(, originate. Indeed, when 
 we cojisider and coinpare the important functions of 
 die foot of tije living horse, with the delicacy of the 
 parts as described widiin the hoof ; and if we at the 
 same time subjoin the education of those to whom 
 custom unfortunately has hitherto committed the pre- 
 iervatjoa of this important organ, it will create no 
 surprise, to see so many disi?ascd and lame horses in 
 all the public cities of our union, actually owing to 
 the ignorance and depravity of those rustic vuicans 
 the generality of whom have never read their horn 
 book, iv;norant even of the first principles of their art, 
 unwilii' g br pit to the trouble of learning, or to 
 Uie mortification of owuing that they need it, obst? 
 
79 
 
 nateiy maintaining their own opinions, whereas theiF 
 candidly pleading ignorance, would on the contrary 
 ennoble them. But no, they cut into a horse's foot, as 
 a carpenter does a piece of wood ; and mstead of fur^ 
 nishing additional strength, and rendering the foot 
 capable of resisting the hardest bodies, by taking 
 away no more than is necessary or as much as nature 
 intended should exfoliate, and which she so wisely al- 
 ways leaves her mark to go by, they destroy with 
 their destructive buttrass, those very parts which na- 
 ture formed and designed for that wise and important 
 end ; therefore, it is an easy task to prove in defiance 
 of all they can advance, that they do not only coun*- 
 teract the intentions of nature, but as 1 before obsei> 
 ved, produce diseases, instead of preventing them». 
 
 We shall now conclude our present remarks, thait 
 horses by thousands in the United States are annually 
 destroyed by the above destructive mode of shoeing, 
 and with circumstances of shameful barbarity, by er- 
 ror produced upon error, and which custom has ren- 
 dered too familiar for us to see in its true enormity 5 
 and whole centuries have blindly passed away, in 
 which those errors liave not been perceived, in an ig- 
 norant and thoughtless acquiescence with them; and 
 in this wretched state, often are they seen severely 
 punished and abused, even when they have done tKeir 
 utmost labour, because they cannot do more : and the 
 laws which maintain the most trifling rights of meflp. 
 
so 
 
 in respect to personal safety, have provided no pro- 
 tection to these innocent and often beneficial slaves, 
 from ill usage however gross and unmerited. And 
 much of this ill usage eomes from the ill ten>per and 
 savage disposition, of the half drunken people usually 
 employed about them, who have neither patience nor 
 feeling, for the failing their miserable condition 
 brings upon them. It seems also a monstrosity of in- 
 justice, that after the use of his feet has been taken 
 from him, he should be abused because he cannot go, 
 especially when we recollect his willingness on all oc- 
 casions to i xert his strength and power for us by the 
 slightest intimation of our wishes, even to the extinc- 
 tion of life itself; and contributing as he most wil- 
 lingly does, to the benefits of every class of society, 
 the pomp of the great, the interests and pleasures of 
 the middle ranks, and the wants of the poor, not de- 
 serving such a return It is now only necessary to add, 
 that in corroboration of all I have here said to 
 strengthen the belief that contraction is not only to be 
 prevented and warded off even to old age, but that 
 it is even when very far advanced, capable of being 
 mitigated so as to render the animal useful to double 
 and treble the period he usually is, and if this asser- 
 tion is a fact, I say it is a discovery of great magnitude 
 and economy to the owners of every animal so afflicted. 
 When I first commenced this subject on contraction, I 
 informed my readers that professor Coleman com men-- 
 ced his career at the veterinary college of London by 
 teaching the mode of curing and preventing some of 
 
81 
 
 the most formidable diseases incident to the foot of 
 the liorse. And I am liappj^ in saying that he lias am- 
 ply completed his researches, and that hundreds and 
 even thousands of horses have been and are now saved 
 to the British army in this complaint. The last re- 
 turns to parliament, proved a saving of one hundred 
 and twenty horses in every regfment of cavalry, annu- 
 ally : therefore, by the use of the patent bar shoe, 
 which answers all the purposes of an artificial frog, 
 when properly applied, and the simple immersion of 
 the feet in a water bath for two or three hours every 
 day, or every other day, as occasions and weather per- 
 mit, our ends are obtained. By (his method the nourish- 
 ment natural to the hoof, Ims free access to the suf- 
 fice, and by these simple means only in conjunction 
 with the preservation of the bars and binders, and 
 never touching the frog in shoeing, are a number of 
 diseases of the feet to be both cured and prevented.*^ 
 
 * Befo'C I left England I myself saw several hundred young" hor- 
 ges then Tui&ing by the government and the honou. able East India 
 company, at their stud in HurtfordsLire, under the exp rience and 
 guidance of Mr. Bloxham and Mr Field, veterinary surg ons to the 
 first and second segiments of horse guards, where the happiest re- 
 sults are experienced from this mode of raising horses without 
 shoes, until thei. fifth or sixth year, by abolishing the knife, and 
 using the riisp and tip only. It sliould also be remembered that 
 whtn you once begin to cut a colls foot you invite the growth of 
 horn, and theieby commence an evil you must of necessity go 
 on with, but if you have not used \\-.e buttrass, you leave nature to 
 I'^i elf, and she wisely does he- own work by throwing off all ex- 
 traneous substance of the frog and hoof by a natural exfoliation^ 
 
RECAPITULATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TREATMENT AND CURE OF CONTRACTION, FOUNDER 
 AND RUNNING THRUSH. 
 
 If a person own a young liorse four or five years of 
 age, having perfect feet, let him be careful of preser- 
 ving the frog, bars and binders, keeping the frog on a 
 level with the shoe, consequently always in contact 
 with pressure, the heels are constantly expanding, 
 and neither contraction nor thrush ever takes place : 
 but the moment you deviate from tliis rule, either by 
 raising tlie frog from pressure, or cutting the frog, 
 bars and binders, from that moment the functions of 
 nature are altered and disease commences her ravages. 
 
 If however, you have a horse seven, eight or ten 
 years of age, and the heels fi-om bad shoeing are 
 high and contracted, commence by cutting them 
 down to about two or two and a half inches, rasp the 
 quarters, and if the frog then comes on a level Mith 
 the horn, apply the clip thin heel shoe ; but if the frog 
 even after cutting still remains too elevated to come 
 in contact with pressure, apply the bar shoe, and the 
 pieces of cork to make it do so. If tlie frog is dry and 
 there is no thrush, keep it in the bath, but if not^ 
 
83 
 
 keep it ilry and ^et it sound by the application of the 
 college Egijptiacum before you suffer moisture to 
 touch it. The expansion of the heels should be watch- 
 ed at every shoeing, and the shoe widened every 
 time the horse is shod, by these simple rules, and a lit- 
 tle attention to the subject, in a few months thou- 
 sands of horses may be saved to the United States.* 
 
 * In corroboration of all that I have hitherto advanced on thp sub« 
 ject of rasping the hee is und quarters, in conjunction with immer- 
 sion in the baih, i relate the first experiment I mide duriag my 
 residence at the college. 
 
 While on a visit at Hampstead, a gentleman, a friend of my fa- 
 ther's, who had purchased a very fine hunter whose feet were in a 
 high state of contraction, applied to me for advice, the horse was 
 about ten years of age : I commenced by rasping the heels, and at 
 the quarters from the corronet to the basis, just sufficient to prevent 
 drawing blood ; the button of the walls at the quarters, were cut 
 down flat by the smith, as near as could be permitted : by this the 
 frog which was before contracted and raised from pressure, was now 
 brought to bear upon the grou' d, and to promote which, the toe 
 was cut off square, as far as it would permit. This operation being 
 performed, the horse was every day immersed in the bath for two 
 or three hours, and without being sho ; suffered to run out at his 
 pleasure on apiece of ground adjoining the stable. In about nine 
 weeks from the commencement, I found that the heels had consi- 
 derably expanded by the power -»f contraction, which the w--*ken- 
 ing of the quarters with the rasp, had given to the bars, and which 
 before were scarcely visil)le, now grown large and stfong ; the frog 
 also, by being brought m contact with press u e, had by this time 
 grown down, and was sufficiently large to be ne iily f)n a level with 
 the heelsi which hitherto had been prevented by the contraction af 
 
84 
 
 The system here laid down of cwring diseases of 
 the feet, has, I am confident never been introduced 
 or put in practice in this country. I shall therefore 
 derive son e consolation from one reflection on the 
 subject, that is, even tliough much enmity and preju- 
 dice still exists among the smiths, by a determined 
 perseverance in tlieir present destructive mode of 
 shoeing, a considerable share of the evil, will by the 
 introduction of the bath and the bar shoe, be removed ; 
 and tlie rapidity of contraction >vill in most cases not 
 only be considerably decreased, but the services of the 
 animal prolonged for many years to their owners. 
 However, like many other evils in society, it is a fact 
 much easier felt and perceived than remedied, never- 
 theless,! am not witliout liopes, that what 1 have 
 here loosely suggested, may still be acted upon by 
 gentlemen acquainted with their own interest and 
 thereby determined to maintain the same prerogaiive 
 in their stables as in their parlours. At the same time 
 it is equally cleiir to me, that in order to lessen these 
 enormous and growing eviJs, as respects the dominion 
 and influence which niany gentlemen's servants have 
 and do possess in their masters stables, that we have 
 by no means so much to learn as to unlearn, for 
 
 th< quarters. The horse being now fit to be rode, he was Bbod 
 with professor Coleman's patent clip shoe, which soon brought tlie 
 frogo a level with the hoc ; an.J when I left England, ti.is horse 
 haa then been hu t d !)r one season and his feet so iraproved as 
 f carcely to bear credibility. 
 
85 
 
 I have more than once known, tiiat merely for the 
 sake of estabUshing iheir own ridiculous and perni- 
 cious mode of shoeing, when I Ijave differed from 
 them in opinion, they have on purpose lamed their mas- 
 ter's horses and imputed the fault to the shoes, after 
 I'.aving in vain tried every sort of invention and lies 
 to discredit the use of them. And J repeat that until 
 this -desirable change can be effected by gentlemen 
 being resolved to crush the present vinciictive spirit 
 of opposition and misconduct in their grooms and 
 servants, when my services are called upon to render 
 assistance to their afflicted animals, we never can ex- 
 pect to see the veterinary art, or any branch of it 
 prosper in this country. 
 
 If on the other hand, contraction has already taken 
 place with any degree of violence, and you are desi- 
 rous of a cure so as to render a horse serviceable for 
 years to come, you must, to succeed effi^ctually, first 
 commence the operation in quite a different way, by 
 giving your horse up from work, for the space often or 
 fifteen days, and cutting down the foot only as far as is 
 necessary (and no farther than nature has left her 
 marks for your guidance and instruction.) If the frog 
 in this operation comes in contact with pressure, which 
 is so much the better, cut the hair oif all rouiid the 
 foot lock or pastern, fron^ the pastern joint to the cor- 
 ronct, and apply a mild blister, such as tlie following: 
 
 H 
 
86 
 
 Cantharides 
 
 2 ( 
 
 Irachnis. 
 
 Mustard 
 
 2| 
 
 do. 
 
 Venus turpentine 
 
 - - - iJ 
 
 ounces. 
 
 Wax and adepts each 
 
 1 ounce. 
 
 Mix the whole into an 
 
 ointment and rub in 
 
 about an 
 
 ounce in each foot. 
 
 
 
 Let the blister remain on about two days and two 
 nights, and on the third day grease the blister with lard, 
 and immerse the toot in a bath of warm water, and apply 
 the emollient poultice at night. The horse shoukl now 
 have walking exercise twice a day, and when the blister 
 has operated sufficiently, and the hair commences its 
 removal on the part, and the horse is sufficiently well to 
 bear shoeing, let him be now shod with the patent 
 bar shoe* and if the rising or prominent part at the 
 middle or heel of the shoe, as represented in plate 
 two, figure one, should not touch the frog, supply the 
 vacancy and obtain partial pressure by the applica- 
 tion of pieces of cork dipped in tar, which must be in- 
 troduced between the cavity of tlie shoe and frog, and 
 as you observe the frog to descend, grow sound, strong 
 and healthy, the more pressure you give it the better. 
 The clip shoe may then be applied as his constant 
 shoes, without further trouble, by the application of the 
 cold bath a couple hours every day during hot and 
 dry weather. 
 
 • Plate 2, %ure 2. 
 
£0R THE CURE OF RUNNING THRU8H. 
 
 All that need be said for the cure of thrush, is, to 
 give the frog pressure ; if the frog is in a healtliy state 
 and always in contact with pressure In being kept on 
 a level with the shoe, no thrush will ever make its 
 appearance. 
 
 If however, the thrush has already commenced its 
 ravages in the eleft of the frog, and the frog is much 
 decayed, and there runs a foetid humour, the com- 
 messures and cleft of the frog must be well washed 
 and cleansed from all filth and dirt, and washed every 
 day with strong brandy and water, and the following 
 ointment applied. 
 
 Mel ^Mgyptiacum, 
 
 
 Pulverised verdegris 
 
 4J drachms 
 
 Mel 
 
 . 2^ do. 
 
 Vinegar 
 
 ±1 ounce. 
 
 Or a solution of blue vitriol boiled over a gentle fire 
 till it has acquired a proper consistence and red colour. 
 
 By a few applications of this ointment, the frog 
 will acquire a degree of health and hardness, when 
 the college bar shoe must be applied, and the same 
 pressure as before observed, till it has acquired sufli- 
 
88 • 
 
 cient size, health and strength to hear tlie weight of 
 the ap.imal, and when you have once got it to bear on a 
 level with the shoe, the more pressure you give it the 
 better. 
 
 If however, an obstinacy to heal should be observ- 
 ed, as is sometimes the case, the horse must go 
 through a mild course of alterative physic, by which, 
 with a little nitre in his water night and morning, or 
 a few diuretic balls, a cure is generally performed. 
 It may be necessary to keep in remembrance, that an 
 obstinate thrush of long standing, approaching to can- 
 ker, can never be cured but by internal medicine and 
 bleeding. The horse should also be dieted on soft 
 marsh feed and as many potatoes as he will eat. 
 
 Respecting the cure of founder, I trust sufficient 
 has been said on the subject for the guidance of a 
 cure. I will however add, that in desperate cases, I 
 have always been successful by the application of the 
 following poultices : take of bran a quarter of a peck, 
 water a sufficient quantity, boiled ten minutes, and 
 then thicken it properly with linseed meal, add as 
 much vinegar as you can, to give it a proper consis- 
 tence, and apply this from the articulation of the 
 shoulders to the feet for a couple of days, after this 
 apply the mild blister from the articulation of the 
 knee to the corronet, previously cutting off the hair. 
 When the blister has acted about twelve hours, im- 
 
89 
 
 inerse the feet in a warm bath, if you can get (he 
 horse to stand | if he cannot, continue the poiilike over 
 the blister. The horse should have an opening soft 
 diet with an ounce of nitre, night and morning, and a 
 pound of salts every two or three days, but no nitre 
 on the day that salts are given. The blister mutt be 
 continued and renewed every eight or ten days, and 
 the warm bath and emollient poultices for a month or 
 six weeks. When the horse can bear his own weight 
 it will be best to turn him out, and leave his exercise 
 to his OAvn free will. A diuretic ball every three or 
 four days, with a few purgative alterative balls will 
 be of great service to keep the bowels in a proper 
 state. 
 
 The purgative alterative balls are composed of a 
 drachm and a half of aloes and two drachms of soap, 
 one to be given every twelve hours till the body is 
 opened. The frequent application of the blisters as 
 before prescribed, will produce an external irritation 
 on the parts, which may often succeed in restoring 
 the legs to their natural supleness ; particularly if the 
 case is recent, and the poultice be properly apj>lied eve- 
 ry night from the knees down to the feet. Tliis treat- 
 ment requires a great deal of perseverance and pa- 
 tience, and in ij.any instances a complete cure has 
 been performed by it, but never in very desperate 
 cases by any other method. 
 H 2 
 
90 
 
 If the treatment here recommended, does not com- 
 plete a cure, the disease will terminate with more or 
 less dreadful effects; the play of the joints will he con- 
 fined, the legs will move with difficulty, and the ani- 
 mal will he lame during the remainder of his life. 
 Having disclaimed the idea of writing a regular trea- 
 tise on shoeing, in these essays, I shall now close the 
 subject, by hoping that the cardinal maxims laid down 
 in Mr. Coleman's system of shoeing, and which I 
 printed in a small pamphlet some time ago, will re- 
 main in full and undiminished force. They have stood 
 the tfstof more than twentyyears experience, and may 
 chiefly be compiled under the following heads, name- 
 ly : that the frog and bars shall be scrupulously pre- 
 served, and the frog always brought in contact with 
 pressure if possible — that the shoe shall rest on the un- 
 der edge of the crust and bars alone, and touch the sole 
 at no one single point — that such portion of the sole 
 as may be necessary, shall be carefully removed with a 
 drawing knife, and only hollowed out sufficiently to 
 allow a picker to pass all round, from the point of the 
 toe to the extreme angle of the heel, where the ca- 
 vity ought to be greater than at any other part — that 
 there shall be no superfluous weight of iron in the 
 shoe, and that the nails shall be driven as little back- 
 ward in tlie quarters as is compatible with the secure 
 fastening of the shoe. 
 
 And I am perfectly satisfied, that the enforcement 
 of these simple rules, and the use of the patent bar 
 
91 
 
 slioe* and the cold bath, will not only be the means 
 of preventing many, but mitigating and warding off 
 even to old age, most of the evils which daily spring 
 from that pernicious method of shoeing now prac- 
 tised by the smiths in general of tliis city. 
 
 » Plate 2 figure 2. 
 
TO PRITATE GENTLEMEN, 
 
 OWNERS OP BREWERIES, 
 
 MAIL STAGE ESTABLISHMENTS 
 
 AND LIVERY STABLE KEEPERS, 
 
 The following useful improvements in veterinary science is 
 respecfully submitted. 
 
 The various medical uses to which Dr. Carver's 
 patent, universal, veterinary medical bath may be ap- 
 plied in restorinj^ horses feet, that are constantly in 
 use, and battering over the pavement of a large city, 
 will render it a valuable acquisition to the public. It 
 may be applied, under its various modifications, for 
 all diseases of the feet, particularly contraction, 
 founder, sand cracks and running thrush — to diseases 
 of the skin — of the lungs — and for inflammation 
 generally. For tetanus and many other disorders, both 
 external and internal, to which horses and other quad- 
 rupeds are liable. 
 
 It is also recommended, as a useful introduction 
 into all infirmaries and large establishments where a 
 number of horses are employed, such as breweries, 
 mail statije establishments, sugar houses, private and 
 public stables. 
 
93 
 
 To the southward, and the westward, and in the 
 West Indies, in large and extensive cotton farms and 
 plantations, where tetanus, and other spasmodic dis- 
 orders so frequently occur among the negroes ; the 
 hot and vapour both will be found extensively useful 
 in saving the life of both man and beast. 
 
 Dr. Carver however, with a view of making its 
 usefulness more general in tlie breweries, private and 
 public stables of the city, for the cure and prevention 
 of founder and contraction, which disable so many fine 
 horses in all the public cities of the United States, 
 has simplified and modified his universal bath so as 
 to render it less expensive, as well as to give less 
 trouble to servants. 
 
 A model of Dr. Carver's universal and modified 
 bath, may be seen at his residence, and all applica- 
 tions for a knowledge of its principles, and also fop 
 the application of the patent bar and clip shoes, in aid 
 and assistance of the cure of contraction, &c. in con- 
 junction with the use of the bath, will be punctually 
 attended to. 
 
TERMS OF CHARGES 
 
 FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF USING 
 
 LR. CARVER'S PATEJ^T BATH. 
 
 For 14 years. 
 For all public livery stables SlO 
 
 For all mail stage establishments 10 
 
 For all breweries not exceeding ten horses 5 
 For private stables 5 
 
 Note. All persons disposed to purchase patent rights for a city, 
 town or f tate, will please to apply to 
 
 J. CARVER, veterinary surgeon. 
 
COLLEGE CERTIFICATES. 
 
 Vderinary College, Jultf 12, 1815. 
 These are to certify that Mr. J. Carver has attend- 
 ed the veterinary college as a resident pupil for three 
 years, and having heen examined by us, we consider 
 him as qualified to practise the veterinary art. 
 
 Henrij Clme, surgeon, 
 
 William BaUngtoih •^I* ^. 
 
 Ashley Cooper, 
 
 J, Cook, M. D. 
 
 G, Pearson, 
 
 Henry Clui^jr. 
 
 Edward Coleman, prof. 
 
 Wm, Sexvell, assist, pro, and treas. 
 
 Theatre of Anatomy, Pbysiolog-v, Pathology and Surgery, October, 
 1815. 
 
 By Mr. Wilson, Mr. Charles Bell, and Mr. Brody, 
 
 This is to certify that Mr. J. Carver, veterinary 
 pupil under me, has attended a course of lectures on the 
 • human subject and chemistry, under sir H. Davy, jr. 
 
 Edward Coleman, presit'enf. 
 William Sewell, assist, prof, 
 
 Boyal Veterinary Medical Society, July 12, 1815. 
 We hereby certify tiiat Mr. J. Carver is a mem- 
 ber of the London Veterinary Medical Society, and 
 that his observations have contributed to the advance- 
 ment of veterinary knowledge. 
 Signed by order of the Society. 
 
 Edxvard Coleman, 
 William Sewell, V. P. 
 S. DuFFiELD, Secretary* 
 To Mr. J. Carver. V. 8. 
 
 The above veterinary diplomas have been examined 
 and approved by the president, vice president, secre- 
 tary and members of the Philadelphia Agricultural 
 Society. 
 
 R. VAUX, secretary. 
 
IN THE PRESS, 
 
 AND WILL BE READY BY THE FIRST OF JULY, 
 
 A TREATISE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 DISEASES OF THE EYE OF THE HORSE, 
 
 WITH PLATES, 
 
 TAKEN FROM ACTUAL DISSECTION 
 
 AT THE VETERIXARr COLLEGE ; 
 
 vShowing their causes, symptoms, prevention, best mode 
 of treatment and cure. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 A TREATISE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LAMENESS OF HORSES, 
 
 WITH PLATES, 
 
 SHOWING ALL THE VARIETIES OF LAMENESS TO WHICH THE 
 HORSE IS LIABLE ; 
 
 TAKEN ALSO FiiOM ACTUAL DISSECTION 
 
 AT THE 
 
 VETERLX^IRF COLLEGE; 
 
 Showing their causes, symptoms, best mode of treatment 
 and cure, 
 
 BY THE AiD AND USE OF THE 
 
 PATEXT VETERLYARF JiEDICAL BJiTE, 
 
 INTRODUCED ON A NEW PRINCIPLE 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR,