On the General Treatment of the Feet, 165 



horn or other sharp substance, which happens to penetrate under the 

 nail of the finger, and wound the quick, shall remain there, for some 

 time, without exciting any violent pain or inflammation ; and that when 

 the thorn or splinter is removed, the slight inflammation Avhich it 

 had excited shall soon disappear also. — On the other hand, have there 

 not been instances, of the loss of the nail, and even of locked jaw 

 and other fatal symptoms accruing, in delicate females, from slight 

 punctures, inflicted under the nails of, the fingers. And, in the in- 

 itance of the human nail, provided any pointed substance were suffi- 

 ciently thin and hard, to penetrate and remain buried in the horn, 

 without at all wounding the quick, surely no one would be inclined 

 to maintain, that it would produce any pain, by its mere pressure 

 upon the living parts underneath. 



Now, let any person look at the striated structure of the inner sur- 

 face, of a Horse's hoof, that has been recently stripped from the 

 elastic laminated fibres, called the Quick, to which it is attached ; let 

 him also recollect, that there are about five hundred of these latter 

 fibres in each foot, which are connected with the horny fibres, in the 

 manner of a sliding folded fan ; and I think it will appear evidently 

 impossible, that any great degree of pressure can be made upon the 

 Quick, provided the nail be buried solely in the horn, except that 

 sort of pressure which arises from, and is connected with, a wound 

 of the sensible elastic fibres. 



For, I cannot conceive that the outer edg^ of the living sensitive 

 fibres, which are not only connected with, but also form, from the bloo^, 

 the inner layer of soft horn of the Wall or Crust, can be so much pressed 

 upon, or pinched, in consequence of the nails displacing or forcing in- 

 wards, the new yielding layer, as to have inflammation and pain su^l- 



Tt 



