When a horse has a good foot and shoeing is properly done, no harm to the horse results from the repetition of the operation every month for his whole lifetime. Accidents may happen, but to speak of shoeing as " a necessary evil" conveys a very incorrect notion of its value. To do the work without shoes that is now done by horses with shoes would require twenty times the number of horses at present in use, and more than half of the whole would be lame at frequent intervals from injury due to wear of the hoof. The British army keep very strict notes of everything which causes a horse to be unfit for duty. The strength on an average is 16,000 horses, and the injuries from shoeing only 150 per annum, of which 50 are due to nails. These statistics show unmistakably that army-shoeing is carefully done, and there is no reason why the work should not be done equally well in civil life. The direct injuries resulting from shoeing may be classed under three heads - those resulting from nails, those from clips, and those from irregular pressure of the shoe.