'U 
TREATMENT OF LAMINTTTS. 
By JohjS Wells, Whitechapel. 
Having been twenty months a pupil under tlie late Pro¬ 
fessors Coleman and Sewell, and forty-two years in rather 
extensive practice in London, I will with your permission 
state that as soon as I read Mr. Broad’s paper on Laminitis,” 
I was surprised at the simple means recommended as treat¬ 
ment. I am now able to state that I have treated several 
cases both acute and chronic with perfect success, and with¬ 
out any alteration of structure resulting in either case. I 
know several other practitioners avIio have been equally suc¬ 
cessful, yet they have not given themselves the trouble to 
record it, which I think unfair towards Mr. Broad. It has 
been truly stated by Professor Williams that if those persons 
who have written and spoken so much against Mr. Broad’s 
heavy shoe for laminitis were to try it, they would then find 
if they did their duty they would apologise to Mr. Broad for 
having condemned it without a trial. There cannot be a 
doubt that this system of treatment will become general, and 
the profession is greatly indebted to Mr. Broad for its intro¬ 
duction. Mr. Fleming and Mr. Broad being both unknown 
to me, except by their writings, I shall take the liberty of 
expressing my views plainly in reference to the use of stout 
shoes for weak flat feet, by stating that I am astonished to 
find any person possessing practical knowledge of town 
shoeing can deny the benefit of stout shoes for such feet,—and 
I go a step further by saying any other feet, of horses con¬ 
tinually working over the paved streets,—and am not afraid of 
being differed from by any practitioner who has had much 
experience of a London shoeing forge. I am also surprised 
to see how few members have taken sufficient interest in the 
discussion to record the result of their experience. Had 
any member of the medical profession published such a thing 
as that of Mr. Fleming’s in reference to stout shoes, it would 
have been quickly denounced by so many members that he 
would scarcely have had the courage to repeat the statement 
even if the editors would have allowed it. I cannot help 
thinking that Mr. Fleming must know his theory is wrong, 
but like many other clever men does not like to admit he is 
beaten. 
[As Mr. Fleming has expressed his determination not to 
continue the discussion, he will not of course notice this com¬ 
munication; and we think, under all the circumstances, the 
controversy cannot be beneficially carried on any longer.]— Eds. 
