Remarks on French shoeing [or a review of Jos. Goodwin's work entitled The King's farrier] / by an English shoeing smith [subscribed Menalcas, i.e. Bracy Clark].

  • Clark, Bracy, 1771-1860.
Date:
1830?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on French shoeing [or a review of Jos. Goodwin's work entitled The King's farrier] / by an English shoeing smith [subscribed Menalcas, i.e. Bracy Clark]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of burning it to it, at the risk of scorching the interior of the foot. The French themselves, to whom the objection had been mentioned, readily admitted this diffi¬ culty of fitting the toe so removed, that little or nothing will be obtained by this apprehended improvement, though it is a ready pitfal for all young novices in the art. The toe of moderate length, or rather full, practice has shewn us to be the best. This turning up ol the toe of the shoe in front, out of the level of the rest of the shoe, is, we apprehend, a practice of very great anticjuity, perhaps coeval with the commencement of the ait of shoeing, and proceeded, possibly, from their having to do with naturally worn feet, which, being dedicated, or deeply worn away at this part, required some sort of adaptation of the shoe to this natural figure. To a great deal of jejune nonsence in this w6rk,—which, if he^had waited a few years more, his experience might have taught him better,—there is a small matter of pilfering to be added to his account, and, what is worse, from an author he has pretended to decry, and which must not be passed by un¬ noticed. This is a truly base and miserable copy of Mr. Bracey Clark’s interesting and beautifully executed plate of the coffin-bone of a horse that has been long shod, and of one in a state of nature, exhibiting the extraordinary effects the shoeing has upon this bone. Now, this curious discovery is purloined without the smallest acknowledgment, and this from a living contemporary who merited to be treated far otherwise. It is also perfectly useless, as it is unattended with any of those valuable remarks, which in the original are seen to accompany it. So that it would appear, that adopting French shoeing, would only be going back to customs old and gross, and long since much improved upon by our English smiths. But so earnestly desirous are some to become authors, that rather than not write, they will choose to hazard a bad cause, at least one they have hardly had time to consider. We should be sorry to deal severely with any, but surely such works as these very much obstruct the opening path of knowledge, and deserve some reprehension. The great business and difficulty of shoeing has been only blinked at in this wretched performance,—for the great and crying evil every where is contraction ; and will Fiench any more than the English shoeing remove this ? Certainly not. Then what has been obtained by all this blunderin°‘ stuff about French shoeing. These lemaiks, wiitten some years ago, have not been published solely on account of this one miserable writer, but to check, if possible, the general mania for authorship on this subject, from hands of little experience, and heads of still less judgment. Mena leas.