109 



11 HIGH AUTHORITY AND STUBBORN FACTS." 



I have heard it stated by a very high authority^ that it was 

 preposterous to suppose that the coffin-bone could be re-instated 

 in its former position when rupture of its laminar attachments 

 had taken place. " Once there is a disconnection between the 

 Horny and sensitive structures, there is no possibility of res- 

 toring them to their normal healthy condition ; " and I thought 

 so too until I was able to demonstrate otherwise. 



It is to be regretted that the ' highest authorities ; are not 

 altogether exempt from a liability to error, as the inconsistencies 

 of their utterances with demonstrable facts, occasionally prove. 

 I do not say that every case of pumiced foot can be restored to 

 normal healthy conditions, but I do say, that recent cases of 

 displacement and descent of the coffin-bone, even after the 

 toe of the bone has become visible, and a wide fissure exists 

 between the bone and the wall, replacement of the bone to its 

 proper place is not only possible, but easy of accomplishment, 

 by simply counteracting the local causes which produced the 

 lesion. 



A DEMONSTRABLE FACT. 



I have now to state a fact of practice which will surprise 

 many ; and were it not a fact of much practical importance 

 and value in the treatment of such cases, I should prefer to 

 withhold it, as I know it will be doubted by some, and scouted 

 by others as a " coinage of the brain," etc. It is this, that when 

 the sole has descended, and the toe of the coffin-bone has pro- 

 truded through the sole, the re-instatement of the bone and 

 the sole may be facilitated by expanding the heels, and lowering 

 the frog, even though the foot be a flat one, and it would 

 appear as the height of folly to do so. 



THE WHY AND THE WHEREFORE. 



The view which I have given elsewhere of the correlative 

 relations of each part of the foot with its opposite, will clearly 

 explain the "why and the wherefore" of this. I may re-state 

 this view, thus : as the descent of the sole is always accom- 



