The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-04-12 00:00:00

THE HORSE AND ITS owNER.

His Wceship the Mayor (R. N. Howard, E.q ,1 presided
at the concludin v 'entire of the enciety, on Friday evening
Wet, whea the Rev. J. a. Wood delivered an interesting
lecture un the above subject, alter a brief and appropriate
sentence or two by the Mayor, who said Mr. Wood needed
on
introdact ion.
kaThe,ltr.zro..NthaTell
bitntrLet.S..Tbecialerlysiftet
ma dsbitieuntzininigimivi.nig
ble to compress into one lecture • teeth of what hecould say
shout thi- wonderful animal. Ho old therefore mainly
confine himself to the part most va'uable Ii man—the
hoot. Tbe Craator has taken lb greatest possible care to
avoid a it-tight line in the bore', mil the creature is all
curves. Striking a waving curve on the blackboard, the
lecturer showed this was the idia of the animal from his
ears to his tail; but man, al WAVS thinking Inc= improve,
trio+ to reduce it to straight lie,. Hera • few straight
lace produced the Indictees etfect of the old wooden
tys. The borne ie built on the some general principal as
the mac, his neer fore leg being she horned trio, lb • bones
being the same, though modified to perform different
dutiei, thus the man's arm mint be rotated ; but as this
would he an element of we okra., in the horses the radies
and 'Was are soldered t .either. Four distinct toes
were permuted by the earliest h nom of which we find
any mord, afterwards one of th ,se was absorbed,
sod in the present horse {No Of these ere only .ery
small, 'and known as "splint b .flee," so that the horse
stands none the time its two middle finger.,
.11, bin
feet are ronstructed on the sem principle, the Creator
taking care to avoid draight lines in order to prevent .i
j at. Mr. Weed sketche I the limes of the firs and kind
legs, showing the arr..tureinente f .r str earth and eluticite
so wonderfully c whined. So much alik- aro eh.- (reared
hind feet that, if pen cut them off and mix thew, you
will he very puzzled te distinguish there. A hors feet
are simply the last j not of his middle ft .gore, and the
nail enlarged. Farriers ire air ti think it lea .114 mcees
of horn but it is one of the meet astonishing pi-eees of
machinery in the world. It is made of three diff .rent
kinds of horn, seerated in three ditforent ways, and serv-
ing three distinct purpose', and we ought to let each
portion do the work for which it Ml4l let 'ode.'. The outer
part is const-ucted In I widow, f Tin:tic a wonkier of plates,
and can exp Ind cr cent-sot in al fir •nt M.ll e ; the sole
forms a deeds arch to prevent th cruet Niro cellapeing
or spreading too fir. and it act' lilt an arch in supporting
the enormous weight of the animal ; and there is the frog,
the texture of which isnot unlike vulcanised india-ruble .
Very numerous are the !maim bee had counted 1,900,
and inside is the coeln-hono, covered with sensitive
matter, composed of arteries, veins, and nerves, very
elight end delicate: end the horn is secreted and supplied
from above u fact melt is worn awn from below, and the
horse's weight is snamended on element's:we, the sensitive
and horny laminae heistg interlaced. and when the hoof
is cut scram nobody would recognise it—it is something
liken dahlia or ress-anomone. Mi.. Wood cant Aided the
hearing of lb • hoof ought to be on tee centre, and not on
the edge, for the free: heart they sante prodtion as the pad
in the foot of the, doe or cat. The horn I. &plaited in
layers, which drop off as they wea-, and the sensitive pert
Comes aen ragged ffalet If you get hold of the hoof of
a hone which has never been t inched by the blacksmith,
you will he astounded to feel how soft it is, being really a
teethe organ. and Mr. Wood reed letter from a person
wheat Rae Hic is,w he n alittle b horri fie I his mother by
running in front of a tient of horeoi, did tripping no jut
before the leader, which put hlg foot on hie head and
stopped the tines, land ail his life that Person
kept a most distinct reineeihroece of the soft and
gentle touch of the bores's foot. pr sing hiin to the around,
anilpreventioghinntettoosuit f iirther back, atuon g hoofs or
wheels, ethat the boy lived to lii tt e father of several of
the ad wir -rs of Mr. Wool. Bui, al ih nigh the C-eator has
arranged the stru-tore of the fo t so as to save weight,
man hangs a couple of ro end of iroi on it, and how tunny
extra "font.poiteds roust the horn% have to raise every
day f —power which is thrown away. Again man goes
against nature by turniug up the Imola hi en dote
the horse to bold on sliePerY ground ; but thi animal
naturally tries to bold Icy los In,. and the turned-un heel.
throw tho animal off hie bailee'. A shoe has tom
invented, extosiling alone the to', aad allowing the Cr ig
to ererk properly, and the we ght, to ho thrown up n
so that the elaborate sy•t im of sorin is in the horse' foot
seeable to do their work. Mn. W. .a showed the useful.
re— of allowing the hearing of an engine's axles on the
ott‘us of springy. Suppose any one sald—" Those sprints
may Weak," and subetltuted two POlid bearings at the
ends. he would not much like to ride on that engine; ,
bet thet is what men do by puttiag the "num shoe,
and making the hew iwt of the horse on the rim of his
foot instead of on the frog Elea:ants, walk slut eel as
silently as cats, and the rYa.un is 'wales their feet are
constructed with spring., and are not shod, through bear-
ing such tremendous weights. Mr. Wood, therefore, had
come to the conclusion that the harm) hoof does not
require protection, though that being a view of his own,
he abould not try to edema it on any one. Yet horses
traverse with unshod feet and are wit injured, ground
to which our macadamised roads are quite soft ;
unehxl bones traverse rocks that would cut the
feet of our shod horses all to Ple,eY, they will to over I
ice where ours would slip, an 1 oret marring where
ours would be stuck fast. He fir ale 1, dia.-ad that every
one of the diseases of the horses' hoof conies more or leas
directly from the shoe. True, one veterinary surgeon says
that thrush is caused hy not cutting &ray the part. but
then where do the wild horses k e their knives to pore
their hoofs! A vast quantity of 1,, 01 Is prepetigene
pumped into the horses' hoof to maple the horn, which
is intended to be worn away, and the heavier and tighter
the shoe the more inflammation come,: hut he challenged
anyone to produce a wild horse with thrush, and if it
mold be found be would eat the h, to, thrush and all.
The horse that belonged to the lota king of Abyssinia had
never been shod, and his feat were Perfe-t ; the stmt. of
Rome and Maple' are paved with lan, which livery hard
and sometimes very slippery. and no cat of the horses there ,
are unshod on the hind feet, awl sonic have no shoes at
all, yet they keep their looting a. nuts cannot, The
lecturer bad also noticed barefooted I, irlcimnd boys running '
over hard material, and keeping their feet with perfect
or:minty. while he had found the feet of Raffles wt re
about the same consistency as part of the horses' foot, like
india-rubbber ; most of us also know that bi•yclee are
tired with india-rubber. and they go over a greet deal
of uncommonly rough ground. Speaking of the efforts to
" improve" on nature, he said the ambition of many
people is to maven themselves from plantigrade,, walk-
ing( on the sole of the foot, into die itrades, 'rating on
their toeP, and he sketched the result—a lady lifted high
.oknetehr heels, jtomd.ttehniliunwebvealoor. utp.to
the horse, he stated the animal wants to obey MILO, and
only wants to know what man moires of iadningd be
e'hi:lglmt:"thhebinieguri:ji. the
will do it, and for this purpose, heftiest see all round him :
a blind horse It seer than • purblind one, as he
Is made by blinkers; be is one of the most timid
l start
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A vote
fief wtihllinanutt.fetnllotlerelrevcatituti
the soclety was
proposed by the MAYOR, and acknowledged, that to the
society by Mr. CMCKMAY.

SYDLCNG.
Fl —On Saturday morning about seven o'clock a
cow-shod at Sydling took firs, awl was burnt to the
groyed. A ve-y valuable clw was burnt to death.
%e shed and cow ire the property of man named
Dubbin, woodman. It is supposed that tbe shed Vt./
set on Ilre by Dubbin's son, who is said to be half-
witted.

ozzLms omovosn.
THE PaltisH BcHoOLs.—From the following reports
just received it appears that these schools arc in a very
'satisfactory state :—Mixed school : " Great pains are
taken in all the branches of the school work, and
most satisfactory remlbs are obtained in all the
classes." Infants : "The little children are exceed-
ingly well-behaved, and +aught with great kindness,
aids very fair arrount skill." Ninetreeven per
cent. was the mina at cis.% examination,
Ohm FoneraL —May 19th has been fixed am the
date to hold a festival in the parish church. The
Salisbury Diocesan Festival Choir Book for the
Drama year will be used except in, regard to the
Mignificat and Nuns Dimittle, for WM= Bwinett's
warbe substitutod.