FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   >>  
vous system and joints from the shock of the concussion when the Race Horse thunders over the course, seeming in his powerful stride to shake the solid earth itself, and it gives the Trotter the elastic motion with which he sweeps over the ground noiseless upon its yielding spring, but, if shod with heavy iron, so that the frog does not reach the ground to perform its function, his hoofs beat the earth with a force like the hammers of the Cyclops. With the facility to error characteristic of the unreasoning, it has been one of the opinions of grooms and farriers that this callous, india-rubber-like substance would wear away upon exposure to the action of the road or pavement, and it has been one of their cherished practices to set the horse up upon iron, so that he could by no possibility strike the frog upon the ground. In addition to this violation of nature, they pare away the exfoliating growth of the organ, and trim it into the shape that suits their fancy. Without action, muscular life is impossible, the portion of the body thus situated must die, paralyzed or withered. Motion, use, are the law of life, and the frog of the horse's hoof with a function as essential and well-defined as any portion of his body is subject to the general law. Without use it dries, hardens, and becomes a shelly excrescence upon a foot, benumbed by the percussion of heavy iron upon hard roads. This is a loss nature struggles in vain to repair, the horse begins to fail at once. The elastic step, which in a state of nature spurned the dull earth, becomes heavy and stiff, and the unhappy brute experiences the evils partially described in the previous chapter. To restore the natural action of the foot by putting the bearing on the frog, is the chief object of the system we advocate, and the Goodenough shoe is designed especially to provide for that first and last necessity. If this is accomplished with a sound horse, he will avoid the thousand ills that arise from the usual method, and, so far as his feet are concerned, he will remain sound. If the shoe is adopted as a cure for the unsoundness already manifested in animals that have been deprived of the proper use of their feet, it will cure them, not by any virtue in the iron itself, nor by any magic in its application, but simply by giving beneficent nature an opportunity to repair the ruin that the ignorance of man has wrought upon her perfect handiwork. This part of our subj
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   >>  



Top keywords:

nature

 

ground

 

action

 

elastic

 
Without
 

function

 

system

 
portion
 

repair

 
chapter

restore

 

percussion

 
benumbed
 

bearing

 

putting

 
natural
 

unhappy

 
begins
 

object

 

struggles


experiences

 

partially

 

spurned

 
previous
 

application

 

simply

 

giving

 

beneficent

 

deprived

 

proper


virtue

 

opportunity

 

handiwork

 

perfect

 

ignorance

 

wrought

 
animals
 
necessity
 
accomplished
 

provide


advocate
 

Goodenough

 

designed

 

thousand

 

adopted

 

unsoundness

 

manifested

 

remain

 

concerned

 

method