Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« Since my first entrance into the Veterinary Profession, I have not been an inattentive observer of the destructive effects of disease on the Foot of the Horse ; and it appeared to me that Veterinary Practitioners, however correct and minute they may have been in speaking of the constitutional diseases of the animal, and their treatment, had not bestowed even the necessary degree of attention on those occurring as the result of injuries sustained by this particular part. I was led to thisconclusion by observing how tedious and unsatisfactory was the usual progress of cure in such diseases of the Foot as were considered curable, and the great number of animals which were led to the slaughter-house in consequence of disease of this part originally produced by accidents of the most trifling nature. The immense number of horses of all kinds which were thus annually sacrificed, seemed to be a consideration sufficiently important to warrant a minute investigation; and, as a preparatory step towards the discovery of any thing connected with this subject, which may have previously not been very generally known, I was induced to refer to those writers who had bestowed attention on it : nothing satisfactory, however, was the result ; and I was left almost entirely without assistance, to pursue the object I had in view. A series of experiments, comparative of the effects of the most successful of the plans usually employed, with others, which a physiological view of the subject seemed to dictate, has clearly convinced me that the grand cause of the obstinacy which such diseases have manifested, has been, impropriety of treatment. It has long since, indeed, appeared to me, that such extremely severe and destructive applications as are commonly used, could not be generally necessary ; but inquiry only could enable me to obtain that knowledge, of the disease in which they were employed, necessary to speak decisively of their effects ; and I am now warranted in the assertion, that the most common methods of treatment adopted in many of the diseases of which I have spoken, instead of hastening the cure, tend diametrically to oppose the means which nature herself would, unrestricted, adopt for such a purpose.
Whole volumes have been written respecting the practice of shoeing, and the best methods of preventing contraction : new fashions of the shoe were successively produced, as calculated to effect this object; and these fashions were honoured by their inventors with the title of Principles; hence "Shoeing upon a new Principle" never failed to attract attention, as it held out a hope of escaping the mischiefs which were known to attend the preceding.[…] » Présentation de l’éditeur (1816)

« Il existe deux éditions américaines, la première parue en 1825 à Baltimore chez J. Robinson; et une seconde, parue en 1831 chez D. Murphy. » Bibliothèque Mondiale du Cheval