511 
MR. BROAD IN REPLY TO MR. FLEMING. 
I was surprised the other day, when in the first shoeing 
forge in London, to see that the feet were cut as mneh then 
as when I first entered it, thirty-two years before. If the 
leading members of the profession do not adopt right prin¬ 
ciples, how can we expect them to become general? Mr. 
Fleming states—If I were asked to produce a case of foot 
disease, such as laminitis, to order, I think I could not do 
better than follow Mr. Broad^s method of shoeing a foot of 
this description, then on a hot day in July drive or ride the 
animal sixty miles on a hard pavement, and see if it is fit to 
repeat the journey the next day.^^ That certainly would be 
a very likely means of producing laminitis, whatever system 
of shoeing were adopted; and the person who gave it a trial 
ought to be prosecuted for cruelty to animals. I am fully 
aware of the disadvantage of the weight of iron in the heavy 
shoes, as well as the small amount of elasticity it possesses; 
but, notwithstanding those drawbacks, the advantages exceed 
the disadvantages, and until we can find a lighter and more 
elastic material which will answer the purpose we must put 
up with the disadvantage of iron. 
Mr. Fleming also states that theory is the ruin of my 
practice, so far as the experience of disease goes.^^ In reply 
to which I beg to state that theory without practice is very 
apt to mislead. M^hen we have ascertained a practical fact, 
and our theory does not agree with it, the theory must be 
wrong. Mr. Fleming has referred to the case of pumiced 
feet of 1865. He certainly has no right to presume what my 
opinion “ would have been \ ” but this I can affirm, that I 
never had brought to my notice a case on which I could not 
nail stout shoes. Notwithstanding all that has been pub¬ 
lished in the Veterinarian this year on laminitis, I have 
within the last few weeks heard two veterinary surgeons 
state that the pathology of the disease was still an unsettled 
question, at the same time drawing my attention to Mr. 
Greaves^ paper in the April number of the Veterinarian, 
where it is stated that laminitis is protracted intense cramp 
in the dense fibrous tissues of the feet. For the information 
of those members who have forgotten the anatomy and 
physiology of the foot, I beg to inform them that there are 
no fibrous structures in the foot of the horse capable of being 
affected by cramp. 
