164 On the General Treatment of the Feet, 



which can produce no pain, or it must pierce and wound the sensi- 

 tive elastic fibres which are called the quick. It will be recollected, 

 I have already admitted, that the application of an iron shoe to the 

 foot of a Horse does of itself alone, necessarily produce that gradual, 

 slow contraction of the hoof, which all Horses that are shod, are 

 inevitably exposed to ; and, therefore, the nails, however carefully 

 and judiciously they may be driven, may, in this point of view, and 

 in the literal sense of the expression, as far as respects the ultimate 

 effects of the practice of Shoeing, be said to bind or pinch the foot ; 

 but, I am now speaking of that sudden lameness which is so com- 

 monly observed to result from fresh Shoeing (in contradistinction to 

 Chronic lameness proceeding from wire heels) and which the Smiths 

 always explain, and excuse, by the phrase of a Horse being bound or 

 shod too tight. The fact is, that in all these cases of sudden lameness, 

 with the exception of such as are produced by the Shoe pressing or 

 lying dead, (as the term is) upon some part of the sole, the mischief is 

 occasioned by the nails ; which do not merely press upon, but actually 

 puncture and wound the quick. Sometimes, however, it may hap- 

 pen, in constitution* peculiarly irritable, or when a Horse thus 

 pricked, performs a severe journey immediately after being shod, 

 that the puncture inflicted by a single nail, may produce general 

 inflammation of the whole Foot, sufficiently high, to occasion the 

 casting of the hoof, or even the death of the animal. But, we are 

 by no means to infer, because the sudden lameness produced by a 

 shoe lately put on, shall happen to be removed, in two or three days, 

 by taking it off, and applying it afresh with more caution, that there- 

 fore, the nails have occasioned the mischief, by merely pressing upon, 

 without wounding the quick. For, how often does it occur,' that a 



