166 On the General Treatment of the Feet, 



denly excited in them, from this cause alone. Let it not, however, 

 be inferred, that 1 mean to deny the possibility of a nail being driven 

 in such a manner as to press upon the quick, which would be a posi- 

 tion too absurd to be maintained, as all I contend for, is, that such 

 pressure can only follow as a consequence of puncturing; in other 

 words, that the puncture must first be inflicted before the pressure 

 can take place upon the quick. 



The reader will perceive thpt the argument which I am maintain- 

 ing, applies only to the affair of sudden lameness produced by 

 the nails, under the ordinary circumstances of shoeing ; whilst at 

 the same time I acknowledge the possihiliti/, of making the nails 

 the medium of pressure, upon the living sensible parts of the 

 Foot, in such a way, as to produce sudden lameness without punct- 

 uring the quick. Suppose, for instance, that the hoof attached to a 

 living HorsCj were put into a vice, and (the horn and quick being 

 bolh compressible by mechanical force) that its diameter, from the 

 toe to tlie heel, were encreased at the expence of that of the quar- 

 ters, by the power of the vice, on the opposite sides of the crust; 

 if, in this unnatural shape and situation of the Foot, a shoe were 

 fitted, and nailed upon it, in such a manner, that no one nail should 

 wound the quick, yet would the hoof when taken out of the vice, be 

 incapable, in consequence of the resistance furnished by the nails, 

 of resuming its former shape, and proportion ; and thus the nails 

 might be said, in such a possible case indeed, but in no other that 

 I can conceive, to press upon, without wounding the quick. I have 

 been, thus, incidentally, and in a manner involuntarily, led to make 

 these remarks, from a wish to correct the common erroneous notions, 

 that are connected with this subject; whilst at the same time, I am 



