1072 



DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 



introduced daily for three or four weeks. With this treatment he 

 cured thirty-two cases, some very serious. 



Some cases are rapidly cured by one or another of the above- 

 described methods, but in others no treatment short of extirpation 

 of the necrosed cartilage seems effective. It is exceedingly difficult 

 exactly to indicate the necessary conditions for healing, and therefore 

 for some years operation has been more and more practised. 

 All hough operation can only be recommended in really serious cases 

 and after simpler methods have received careful trial, it nevertheless 



Fig. 509. — 1 and 2. Double- and single-edged knives for thinning the horn ; 3. 4. and 5, 

 left-handed, right-handed and double-edged knives for removing the lateral 

 cartilage in the operation for cartilaginous quittor. (French models.) 



offers great general advantages, especially as regards shortening the 

 course of the disease. If conditions are favourable to healing, operation 

 should certainly be postponed, otherwise, and especially if careful 

 after-treatment is possible, it should, on the contrary, at once be 

 resorted to. Total extirpation of the cartilage is preferable to any 

 partial measure, though, if the disease and swelling on the coronet 

 be circumscribed, the latter may be tried. But even under these 

 circumstances partial excision sometimes fails to arrest the disease, 

 and complete extirpation becomes necessary. 



Operation. After carefully cleansing and disinfecting the hoof, 

 a portion of the horny wall, corresponding to the diseased cartilage, 

 is rasped until thin enough to yield under the pressure of the thumb. 



