FEROCIOUS ATTACK BY A HORSE. 
221 
penny per nail for every horse, whether that horse be worth one 
pound or one thousand pounds; and seeing that the most valuable 
horse is often most troublesome to shoe, and, consequently, more 
liable to be pricked by the driving of every nail than a horse of less 
value, it must be evident, that unless a proportionate rate is paid 
for a horse, according to his value, the owner must run the risk 
of shoeing, or, otherwise, he must pay an insurance to the smith. 
Further than this, I think it would be impossible to implicate the 
smith, from the difficulty of proving the case in most instances, or, 
indeed, in any instance. Unless it can be shewn that some one 
has seen the nail driven into the quick, how is it to be proved that 
it was the smith, your brother’s man, that had pricked the mare 1 
Some person might have done it maliciously. It may have been 
the owner himself, or the groom, or some other smith ; or the shoe 
may have been fastened, and the accident occurred in that way ; 
or it may have been a puncture, or prick in the previous shoeing ; 
or it may have been by the shoe being trodden upon, and partially 
torn off, and again trod on to its place ; or the mare might, while 
standing in the forge, when her shoes were off, have trodden upon 
some other shoe with the nails in it ; or the appearance of a prick 
may have arisen from gravel having penetrated through some of 
the pores of the hoof ; or the matter formed in the foot may have 
been the effects of a bruise, or of a tread : and I would therefore 
ask, who could prove that it was none of these causes, and must 
have been a prick, and that by the identical smith in any case, and 
most so in the case you mention. I think the bone had been frac- 
tured ; but there was plenty of time for the bone to exfoliate. 
Your’s, truly, 
(Signed) William Dick. 
(Copy.) 
FEROCIOUS ATTACK BY A HORSE. 
On Saturday evening a young man, a groom, while satisfying 
his curiosity in examining a stallion of the pure Arabian breed, 
kept at livery in a stable at the west end of the city, was attacked 
by the animal, and lacerated in a most dreadful manner. The 
horse, it appears, on account of the rarity of the breed in this 
country, is an object of considerable interest, and has been visited 
by many of our fellow-citizens, and, among others, by the young 
man referred to, on Saturday, accompanied by two friends. The 
animal was placed in a loose box, and secured by a halter ; but, 
VOL. XVI II . H h 
