Development of the nociceptive response produced by both slight and noxious action on the foot pad and in hair-covered skin was investigated during acute experiments on cats. The action of diverse noxious stimuli upon the skin of the foot pad failed to elicit nociceptive reflexes but regularly did so in the case of the hair-covered skin adjacent to that of the foot pad. These reflexes were evoked by sensory signals transmitted along unmyelinated fibers. No C-afferent activity was recorded when quantifying afferent flows arising in response to noxious foot pad stimulation; this contrasted with flows of impulses produced by injuring hair-covered skin and that covering the foot pad. The absence of C-afferents traveling from the latter area means that no peripheral coding of nociceptive signals takes place; nor are any nociceptive reflexes set up in the foot pad by greatly intensified action.