ON ONE-SIDED NAILING. 
257 
fit; and though the writer has preserved his incognito, yet I do 
not think, in opposing- Mr. Turner's system, he has been actu¬ 
ated by any invidious or improper motives. The observations 
with which he prefaces his paper are perfectly just and reason¬ 
able, and from the general style of his dissertation 1 should 
imagine that he is no unpractised hand. However, as I do not 
by any means agree with his positions, or coincide with his argu¬ 
ments thereon, I am induced to venture a few remarks ; my de¬ 
sire being the same as a “ Constant Reader's, ’ viz. to elicit know¬ 
ledge, although I have in some respects the disadvantage, being 
deprived of the pleasure of knowing who my antagonist may 
prove to be, if he should hereafter condescend to raise his visor. 
The writer, after a few introductory remarks, proceeds to ad¬ 
just the scales wherein to try “ the risks and counterbalancing 
profits ' 1 of Mr. Turner's system, and he says, “ we must advance 
step by step, and with cautionbut, lo and behold, no sooner 
says he this, than he throws in all the weights against the side- 
nailing system; and the natural consequence is, Mr. Turner’s 
scale kicks the beam. He says, “ first, let us inquire what we 
gain by nailing the shoe upon both sidesbut he does not say, 
secondly, what we lose by so nailing; or, thirdly, what we gam 
by Mr. Turner's system. If I proceed to fill up what is here 
omitted, with the addition of a few remarks, I trust I shall not 
be deemed intrusive, or engaged in unprofitable discussion. 
On reading' the paper, 1 was first of all struck with the dia¬ 
grams, one of which is intended to represent the common shoe 
and mode of nailing. Now, for my own part, I could not dis¬ 
cover any resemblance this diagram bears to the common places 
of the nails: if shoes were really made according to this shape, 
J do not think we should ever find feet to fit them; and if the 
nails were really placed in the situations here specified, we should 
very soon have an ample supply of lame horses. The fact ap¬ 
pears to be, the writer has made the diagram to bear out his 
theory, but I do not imagine that he would get smiths to make 
shoes that would bear out his diagrams. To illustrate my mean¬ 
ing, and to save unnecessary words, I have added the outlines 
of two shoes [see Jigs, in p. 258]. No. 1 is the common Eng¬ 
lish shoe as engraven in The Farrier and Naturalist , vol. i, 
p. 227. No. 2 is a representation of a shoe procured at the 
college about three years ago, and is, I believe, generally 
employed in that establishment at the present time. In 
these figures the situation of the nails is exactly preserved; 
and by drawing the lines according’ to the method of “ A 
Constant Reader,” we cannot discover very much of the all- 
important “ reciprocal support'' on which the security of the shoe 
vol. iv. , n n 
