536 THE HORSE. 
causing the fibres to split by the capillary attraction which is exercised. 
The burn should be very slight, and should not be carried deeply into the 
substance of the horn. A fine nail should then be driven from below 
through the crust, the shoe being removed ; and when brought out at the 
usual place, should be left projecting. The shoe should be put on, and 
the innermost nail also left projecting. These two should then be firmly 
bound together by fine wire, so as to bring the edges of the crack together ; 
and the foot should be left in this state for at least a month or five weeks, 
when the shoe may be taken off, and the operation repeated. This is far 
better than binding wire or twine round the whole foot, as it acts more 
completely on the crack, without confining the growth of the remainder of 
the foot. Of course, after the wire is twisted on, the nails must be 
clenched, and there will be a greater projection than usual ; but this is of 
no importance whatever. In cracks of the hind foot the nails in each 
quarter will keep the two sides from separating, but the horse cannot be 
worked. 
FALSE QUARTER. 
WHEN, FROM AN ACCIDENT, the coronary substance is permanently 
injured, it ceases to secrete sound horn, and a stripe of the crust, defective 
in strength, runs all the way down from the coronet to the plantar edge. 
This generally happens at the inner quarter, and is owing to the horse 
treading on his coronet ; but it may also occur on the outside, either from 
the tread of another horse, or from some kind of external violence. The 
result is similar to that of a sandcrack; there is no strength in the affected 
heel, and lameness is produced. ‘The treatment is very much the same as 
for sandcrack. In the first place, the pressure must be taken off the 
quarter, and a bar-shoe applied, so as to convey the weight on the frog, as 
described under the head of Sandcrack. The heel of the affected quarter 
should be lowered, and thus further injury will be prevented. The next 
thing to be done is to stimulate the coronet to a healthy action by blis- 
tering it, which must be done two or three times, taking care that the 
blister is not of too violent a nature, and that the skin heals before a 
second is apphed. By these means, a cure may sometimes be effected ; 
but it takes a considerable time, and until the quarter is reproduced in 
full strength, or nearly so, the bar-shoe should be continued. By its use, 
any horse with a sound frog can travel very well on the road, even if the 
quarter is entirely and permanently separated from the toe by inefficient 
horn ; and without it, the chance of a cure is not to be reckoned on. 
QUITTOR. 
By THIS TERM IS UNDERSTOOD a chronic abscess of the foot, the matter 
always forming sinuses, from the difficulty which nature has to overcome 
in finding a way for it to reach the surface. Generally, the mischief is 
occasioned by an overreach, or a bruise of the sole, or by the inflammation 
resulting from a neglected thrush, or, lastly, from a nail-prick. From any 
of these causes, inflammation of the delicate investment of the coffin-bone 
is set up, pus is secreted, and, in working its way to the surface, it burrows 
between the horn and the bone, and forms one or more sinuses, or pipes, as 
these fistulous tubes are called by the farrier. A quittor is recognised by 
the eye and nose detecting an opening in the horn, from which a foul dis- 
charge proceeds ; and on introducing a probe, it will generally pass freely 
in two or three directions, sometimes giving a grating sensation to the 
