249 
ON THE EXPANSION OF THE FOOT, AND 
ONE-SIDED NAILING. 
To the Editors of “ The Veterinarian .” 
Gentlemen, 
A correspondent, signing* himself a “ Constant Reader, 1 ’ in 
your last Number, remarking on the system of side-nailing, as 
recommended and employed for admitting the expansion of the 
loot, has occupied five pages with a long rigmarole in order to 
express a very simple opinion, which we find comprised at last 
in two lines, thus; p, 212, “both theory and practice assure me 
that the shoe would lack sufficient security on the hoof by such 
innovation.” This is the amount of his argument; and it is the 
first and most obvious objection with which we have to contend. 
Such an arrogant conclusion would imply that the plan had 
scarcely been tried; but after all the pretended mathematical 
reasoning' and arguments d priori are exhausted, we must ap¬ 
peal to facts for a defence, and it will then be found, that, in 
forty-nine cases out of fifty, the shoes remain on well, and w^ear 
out fairly to the last, when nailed in this manner ; that is, if they 
are properly applied with the two clips recommended by Mr. 
Clark, as may be seen admirably represented in the supple¬ 
mentary plate 6, fig-. 2 and 3, of his Treatise on the Expansion 
Shoe. This is a correct view of an unilateral shoe as proposed 
and practised by Mr. Clark, and which others have designated 
the side-nailed shoe. So far I fully coincide with Mr. James 
Turner ; and although that gentleman has heretofore treated me 
w ith most unexpected asperity w hen I ventured to congratulate 
him on the correctness of his views, and his advocacy of the 
same doctrines as myself respecting the foot, viz. those of Mr. 
Bracy Clark, yet I think he will willingly agree in deprecating 
those who condemn this system without having known it in prac¬ 
tice. If the “ Constant Reader” had also perused other veteri¬ 
nary periodicals, he would have found in one which is now dis¬ 
continued (The Farrier and Naturalist for 1829, p. 234^), a letter 
from a practitioner in town, stating, that when residing in the 
country he had .employed this plan for seven years, on above 
twenty horses, with the greatest success; and that he now r shoes 
nearly all the horses that come to his forge in this manner. He 
gives the names of several gentlemen who had used the side- 
nailing system on principle for many years. I can bring forward 
a large number of cases in which it has succeeded, and doubt 
not that Mr. Turner has also sufficient evidence in its favour, as 
he has now used it on principle above two years. Your corrc- 
VOL. IV. m m 
