'A mare, which I have had in my possession since she was a foal, has always had contracted feet, which were also unnaturally small.... Lately the mare has been going very "short," and at length her action was quite crippled. At times she was decidedly lame on the off fore-foot. At no time have I been able to detect any sign of structural disease. I thereupon concluded that the lameness was due to mechanical pressure on the sensitive structures, and I determined to try the effects of the above treatment. As this was my first experience of the process, I was careful to carry it out in all its details, as described by Professor Smith. After the bar shoes had been put on, the mare was very lame. I allowed her two days' rest, then commenced regular walking exercise, and she daily improved. After fourteen days there was no lameness, but still short action. I thereupon gave the mare another week's walking exercise, at the expiration of which I drove her a short turn of five miles, which she did quite well, and free from lameness. For three months I kept the saw-cuts open to the coronet, and continued the bar shoes, keeping the mare at exercise, and giving her occasionally a drive. She never liked the bar shoes, and I was glad when I could discontinue them, which I did in the fourth month. When shod with the usual shoes the complete success of the treatment was shown. I have now had her going with the ordinary shoes for the past two or three months, and the improvement in the shape of the feet is very marked; there is no lameness; the mare is free in movement, fast, and spirited, whereas previously she was quite the reverse, and almost unfit to drive.'[A] [Footnote A: W.S. Adams, M.R.C.V.S., _Veterinary Journal_, vol. xxx., p. 19.] This method, though but recently introduced to the English veterinary surgeon, is by no means new. According to Zundel, it was recently made known on the Continent by Weber, but was previously known and mentioned by Lagueriniere, Brognier, and Hurtrel d'Arboval. When the grooving is in a horizontal direction, a single incision is sufficient. This is made 3/4 inch below the coronary margin of the wall, and parallel with it, extending from the point of the heel for 2 or 3 inches in a forward direction. As in the previous method, a bar shoe is applied, and the animal daily exercised. Thus separated from the fixed and contracted portion of the wall below, the more elastic coronet under pressure of the body-weight commences to bulge. The bulging is of such an extent as to cause the new growing hoof from the top to considerably overhang the contracted portion below, and cure of the condition results from the newly-expanded wall above growing down in a normal direction. This consideration of contracted heels may be concluded by drawing attention to the advisability of always maintaining the horn of the wall in as soft and supple a condition as is natural by the application of suitable hoof dressings.