590 FISSURE IN FRONT OF THE HOOF. 



A little confusion of terms is in the case brought into play. 

 In some countries, in Italy for instance, of which the litera- 

 ture on the subject is older than our own, all ordinary 

 sand-cracks are described as quarti-falsi, which implies a 

 condition viz., when the cracks have become chronic, and 

 the wall exhibits a gaping fissure from the coronet to the 

 bottom, that part of the hoof posteriorly is loose false, and 

 wants connection in function as well as substance with 

 the front of the foot ; and when, from continued or other- 

 wise sustained injury, the secreting structures of the 

 coronet are much destroyed, the absolute breach or great 

 weakness becomes permanent ; hence a permanent sand- 

 crack or false quarter. 



FISSURE IN FRONT OF THE HOOF. 



A Fissure in front of the foot, though not called, techni- 

 cally, a sand-crack, is a lesion similar in kind ; the differ- 

 ence of situation and in the structures affected change 

 the degree, conditions, and character of the lesion under 

 consideration, which commonly happens to the hind feet of 

 draught horses ; it is much less frequently met with than 

 that which happens to the quarter of the fore foot, and is 

 also more formidable in its character, and for resistance 

 of curative measures. As in the case of the first described, 

 there is usually a predisposition weakness, to which 

 may be enumerated the ordinary influences of severe ex- 

 ertion, position given to the foot, and its capacity altered 

 by shoeing, as the constantly recurring causes. The 

 breach in the horn occurs first at the coronet, taking on 

 the same complications and painful condition as has been 

 described in the analogous case ; and, from the fact of the 

 horse having to exert his whole power on the solid front 

 of the foot, it is difficult to afford the required ease and 



