682 
FURTHER REMARKS ON CORONITIS. 
fresh-cut stones and over-reaches/’ act by wounding the bulbs of 
the frogs and particular parts of the foot, causing inflammatory ac- 
tion to be set up in them, which must act exactly the same on the 
posterior parts as inflammation of the laminae does more anteriorly 
and laterally. 
But, the improper fixing of the shoe by the nails, particularly by 
that system of “ coarse nailing” which Mr. Cherry believes to be 
the “ most certain means of producing this disease,” is a fact in 
which I feel particularly interested ; for how we are to injure the 
coronary substance so as to produce inflammation in it by the com- 
mon method of applying shoes to horses’ feet, is beyond my power 
of conception. The injury by the nails must of necessity be in- 
flicted upon the sensible laminae, as it must be imagined to be in 
the case “ supposed” by me in my last communication, and not 
upon the coronary substance : that substance is merely diseased 
through the influence of the primary disease caused by the irrita- 
tion of the nails, and not by the nails themselves. The original 
disease, caused by the nails being too coarsely driven, is inflamma- 
tion of the laminae; and the inflamed state of these cannot cause an 
abnormal secretion of horn from the secreting surfaces of the foot 
in any other way than by virtue of the impression made by such 
inflammation upon the nerves of the adjacent parts, consequent 
upon the withdrawal of nervous energy from them, and their be- 
ing left in a state of irritability from their loss of tone and vigour. 
A blister applied to the coronet has just the same effect upon the 
secretion from the coronary substance as has sub-acute laminitis, 
but its transient nature often causes its effects to pass unobserved; 
so, indeed, has every kind of inflammatory disease to which the 
foot and leg are liable, their effects upon the secretion of the horn 
of the foot being regulated according to their respective position, 
duration, and severity. 
In conclusion, I must beg to inform Mr. Cherry that it was not a 
lack of experienced cases which induced me to have recourse to a 
“ supposed” one to illustrate my views in my previous remarks, but 
a desire to be brief, and not take up any more time and space than 
was especially requisite for my purpose : such cases are too fre- 
quently occurring to every practical man to need a minute detail 
of any particular one, which I consider would have been altogether 
superfluous. I, perhaps, may here remark, that I think too many 
veterinarians occupy very much valuable space by minute and 
petty details of particular cases to the almost entire exclusion of 
principles; and one principle is of more importance to science 
than all the unintelligible jargon of minute detail ever written. 
