NEW THEORY OF THE ETIOLOGY OF SHOE BOIL. 
623 
swer is invariably that he fell and struck the elbow upon the 
ground or against a door or perhaps he was chopping wood. 
Now, if shoe-boils are not caused by the shoe, and I think that 
I have proven that horses and colts which never wore nor had 
them on their feet at that particular time, have shoe-boils, and, 
if the shoe does not cause this affection, then the foot does ; and 
if the foot does not, what is the cause ? I have shown that an¬ 
imals without shoes and animals that cannot lie upon their feet 
suffer from hygroma of the elbow, and I hope if I am right to 
be able to prove the correctness of my views, and if I am wrong 
I ask to be set right. 
I am unfortunate in the fact that medical science has for 
me many bugbears, and one of them is the subject of which I 
am speaking. I have given the subject earnest and long 
thought, serious and painstaking consideration. I know that 
my ideas are radical, for I have never heard nor read of them 
before, and for that reason I have been loath to express them ; 
but, having the courage of my convictions, I do so, asking your 
consideration. Hike every student, I believed implicitly in what 
I had been taught ; I simply did as I was told ; but, alas, I 
have met with many a successful failure, and in this instance I 
had as many failures as I had successes. The failures I would 
not have had had that which I had been taught been true, for 
the simple reason that the preventive measures are mechani¬ 
cal. They are easily applied. I was taught that all that was 
necessary was to keep the elbow away from the foot, or shoe, or 
both, which I did to a positive certainty, and, presto , you would 
have no recurrence ; but, presto forgot itself. I did have subse¬ 
quent attacks. This resulted in reflection, and so, right or 
wrong, I offer it for what it is worth. 
Having had abundant opportunity for observing on an aver¬ 
age of 85 sale horses resting every night for seven years, I took 
particular pains in watching just how they would lie. I am 
sure I saw little or no difference in the position which they 
would assume, aside from those affected with shoe-boil. It is 
true that I saw horses lie upon the heels of their shoes, or they 
