In the Stable, Field, and on the Road. 121 



is highly probable that a cure may be effected ; but if 

 the pipes have a forward direction there is great doubt 

 of a cure being effected. The treatment I have always 

 adopted with quittors is to open the hoof in the diseased 

 part, and allow of free suppuration ; wash clean with 

 warm soda and water, dress, and inject into the pipes 

 carbolised oil, strength four oil, one acid ; this requires to 

 be done three times each day. Carbolic acid, being a 

 powerful caustic and an antiseptic, has the power of 

 destroying the ulceration, and its antiseptic properties 

 prevent suppuration. In most cases of quittor after 

 carbolic acid has wrought its work in the healing process, 

 we often find a superfious growth of flesh, and it becomes 

 necessary to apply nitrate of silver to remove it. This 

 must be used with great caution, as it is of the utmost 

 importance in this stage to check the superfluous growth 

 without retarding the consolidating and healing pro- 

 cess, and this cannot be done without a knowledge of 

 the fundamental principles of the foot ; therefore it is of 

 the utmost importance to call in the aid of the veterinary 

 surgeon in this disease. 



Before leaving the foot of the horse it will be well to 

 consider how our horses are shod, the kind of shoes that 

 are used, and the class of men who make them ; whether 

 they are the shoes best adapted for the comfort and 

 profitable working of the various kinds of horses, and if 

 any improvement is possible to be made, for if a good 

 system of shoeing is universally adopted we shall have 

 given the death-blow to nine-tenths of the diseases of the 

 foot of the horse, and the groom's millennium will have 

 arrived. It is a generally acknowledged fact that large 



