DISEASES. 729 



and no fear of lacerating the soft structures need be entertained. 

 Care is necessary at this step, however, to avoid injuring the cor- 

 onai-y band, and the podophyllous tissue ; to prevent which it will 

 be prudent on the part of the assistant to press upon the band as 

 the separation takes place. 



This being accomplished, the edges of the wound are carefully 

 examined; any projections remaining are removed, and the blood 

 is sponged off. The double sage knife is then carefully plunged, 

 with the convexity turned upward (that is, toward the skin), be- 

 tween the external surface of the cartilage and the internal face of 

 the skin, below the border of the coronary band, and then cai^ried 

 forward and backward, or as required, until the separation of the 

 skin and the cartilage is completed and the external surface of the 

 cartilage is exposed. In moving the instrument backward, it is 

 necessary to be very cautious, especially while carrying the sharp 

 edges downward and inward, in order to avoid injury to the cor- 

 onary band and the skin, of which, however, there can be but little 

 danger, when the knife is carefully held and properly directed. 

 The succeeding step is to separate the skin from the cartilage ; it 

 is to be carefully raised and separated from its attachments under- 

 neath, which is sometimes a process quite difficult to accomplish, 

 as the skin has always become more or less tumefied, and there- 

 fore has lost much of its natural flexibility and suppleness. Some 

 operators, in order to avoid these difficulties, and overlooking the 

 functions of the coronary band, cut it, and remove it, with those 

 portions of the skin which cover the cartilage. Others, more con- 

 servative (Herting, for example) cut it only through the middle, 

 until they reach the superior border of the cartilage, and then, 

 raising the two flaps of the skin, accomplish the same result with 

 less cutting. 



The destruction of the principal organ of the secretions of the 

 hoof having been involved in the first method, and having now 

 taken place, it can never be restored to a healthy condition, and 

 the animal continues to be exposed to the frequently serious com- 

 plications of "false quarter." By the second method, the produc- 

 tion of a new wall is nearly always accompanied with the forma- 

 tion of a "quarter crack." The recovery is slow in either case, 

 and more or less deformity is likely to follow. It is, then, the 

 better and wiser plan to separate the skin from below, and to 

 avoid the division of the coronary bands or of the teguments. 



