Stereoplea, or, The artificial defence of the horse's hoof considered / by Bracy Clark.

  • Clark, Bracy, 1771-1860.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Stereoplea, or, The artificial defence of the horse's hoof considered / by Bracy Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    with this art, and are most often above all kind of instruction. Although one should rather desire, if this art should ever be perfected, that arti- ficers making this branch of work their proper employ should be scattered in tow ns and villages, and who unaffectedly, and according to good sense and sound reason should do their business in this respect, usefully assisting the equestrian in difficult cases, or whenever needful. And I have some- times thought whether the heavy horned cattle in their long journies from the North to Smithfield, might not be defended also on the same simple principle, so as to save them the dreadful sufferings they often undergo, obliged to march on their naked tender bleeding flesh, from the loss of their hoofs, or from their being worn through; such things are often seen in the roads leading to the Metropolis, so that it is a remarkable fact, that while one poor animal is suffering from being overshod, if I may use the expression, the other suffers almost as much, from not being shod at all. This invention I have called The Paratrite* to distinguish it from other modes of defence, as well as to remove the slavish and mysterious notions which attach to the term Shoeing when applied to horses. Its principle is founded upon the circumstance of the wall of the hoof being of a cylindrical form, as we have before explained, so this defence embracing a part or portion of the exterior of the cylinder is made to pass underneath and by upright teeth passing within it, to embrace the interior also, and by this means is held on. It is a material conside- ration in the use of this defence, and has been a circumstance before noticed, that the line of wear is worn away three times faster than any other part of the hoof, so this defence defending this portion, enables it to perform three times the work it is capable of in the natural state of the hoof, which is sufficient for many useful purposes; and we may add that two or more of these shields may be applied, and the defence on the same principle carried round the whole, or any part of the hoof. A figure of this defence is seen at Plate 3, Fig. 1, on the hoof, where the upright part, a, which we call The Helmet, lies in contact with, and is closely fitting the outer surface of the Mall; and the three claws, h, c, cl, Fig. 2, grapple with the interior surface of it, passing deeply into the horn of the sole, or between it and the wall, but short of its thickness, so as not to endanger wounding the foot. It is simply driven on the hoof by * From Para, adversus, or against; and tero, trivi, tritum, to rub or wear. I