800 THE CENTRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
that the horny laminse are produced by the sensitive laminae 
would be as great a fallacy as to conclude that the foetus was 
produced by the maternal membranes. Whether the horny 
laminae, after they are formed, are in some degree nurtured 
through the medium of the sensitive laminae, as the foetus is 
nurtured from the maternal membranes, is a point I am not 
prepared to decide, but my opinion is they are not. I am of 
opinion that the connection between the sensitive and horny 
laminae is an adhesive, not an organized attachment ; that is, 
no blood-vessels or nerves pass from one structure to the 
other, or decussate ; and that if any nutrition is transmitted 
or emitted, it is on the principle of endosmosis and exos- 
mosis. 
2nd. Can the wall or horny lamince he produced by any 
other tissues than the coronary cushion and zone ? 
To this question I unhesitatingly answer no ; such is an 
utter impossibility. I have in numbers of instances in which 
the above-named structures have been for a certain space 
entirely destroyed, or so injured they ceased entirely to deve- 
lope wall or horny laminae, seen a thin layer of horn form 
upon the sensitive laminae, and even when there was no sen- 
sitive laminae whatever underneath ; but this was not wall, 
there was an absence of horn tubes or fibres. I call it horny 
excrescence, Mr. Fleming calls it horn tumour ; I have 
known it to become so thick as to be able to nail through it. 
In all these horny excrescences there is also an absence of 
horny laminae. 
3rd. Are the sole and frog destined by ?iature to bear pres- 
sure f 
The answer to this is, in my opinion, self evident. That 
there may be some feet of extreme concavity with hoofs never 
lowered which upon a hard surface it is impossible for the 
soles to come to the ground I admit, but these should be 
rather looked upon as malformations than otherwise. We 
must not forget that the foot in a state of nature is never in 
this state; the hoof is always kept worn down to a level with 
the sole ; there is a diffused pressure over the sole and frog 
which always bears a portion, if not a large portion, of the 
weight. 
As regards the shoe being fitted so as to bear upon the 
sole, I would say that it is an infliction of pain, although I 
strongly condemn too much seating and too great a space 
between the shoe and sole ; still there is a great variety of 
forms of feet — feet, for exam pie, with flat soles naturally — which 
soon suffer from the continuous pressure of the shoe producing 
what is known as sole pinch ; pain and lameness are the 
result. 
