QUITTOR. 231 



are eternally inflicting cuts upon the opposite legs — the coro- 

 net being the part which, from its prominence, is almost 

 certain to receive the wound. Mischief may be done by 

 these ugly weapons, even in the stable. Cart-horses after 

 work, acquire a habit of scratching one hind leg with the 

 calkin of the other foot, in which amusement the coronet is 

 much exposed to an accident that may prove the forerunner 

 to a quittor. Any wound of the coronet may, from neglect, 

 degenerate into a quittor. But quittor may have another 

 origin. It may arise from abscess within the foot. In 

 speaking oi pricked foot, I observed that matter collected in 

 the hoof could not spontaneously issue tlirough the horn, 

 and consequently must mount to the coronet. One of the 

 frequent causes of quittor, after this manner, is a corn that 

 has run on to suppuration : which again accounts for the dis- 

 ease being commonly on the inner side, but not then of 

 the hind foot. Quittor will, of course, occur on the outer 

 side, whenever the internal injury happens to be in that 

 locality. 



Nature. — Consideration will throw light on the nature 

 of quittor : although this is involved in more intricacy than 

 a superficial observer might imagine. The French veteri- 

 narians have described no less than four kinds of quittor. 

 The first is the simple kind, being the disease in a super- 

 ficial form, or confined to the skin and cellular tissue ; the 

 second or tendinous quittor, is where the sinus is contiguous 

 to the sheath of the flexor tendon ; the third, or horny quit- 

 tor, is that in which the hoof forms the boundary of the 

 fistula; and the cartilaginous quittor is where there exists 

 ulceration of the pedal cartilages. Although these dis- 

 tinctions do not coincide with the results of practice, yet 

 are they not altogether without their use ; since they serve 

 to point out the parts that may be affected. 



The SIMPLE Form of the French school is a spurious one. 

 The coronet receives a bruise, the cellular tissue loses its 

 vitality ; and the consequence is, that the injured parts slough 

 away, leaving a deep circular chasm. Although this does 

 not of itself constitute what veterinarians in this country 



