QUlTTOll. 233 



of the disease, are lameness, tumefaction, and sympathetic 

 fever. These vary with the degree of inflammation, and the 

 parts it invades. 



Our Prognosis must be regulated by the duration of the 

 disease, and by the extent of its ravages. Should the case 

 be recent, or the cartilage be sound, there is prospect of a 

 cure. When, however, time has established a diseased 

 action, the cure is not to be expected under two or three 

 months ; and it may require a longer period. The most 

 mortifying circumstance is to find that after the healing of 

 the wound is effected, the horse still continues lame, and is 

 likely to remain so, owing to change of structure. The con- 

 version of the cartilage, perhaps of its elastic covering and 

 the laminae, into bone, with the destruction of the coronet, 

 causing y«/se quarter, is unhappily too frequent. 



The Treatment of quittor is either an affair of ordinary 

 skill, or one that will bafile the most experienced veterinarian, 

 depending on its duration, and on the ravages accomplished 

 among the structures of the foot. Should it originate in 

 abscess of the sole, all that in the early stage will be 

 required is, to make a free opening upon the ground surface 

 of the hoof with the drawing knife : through this orifice the 

 collected matter may escape, and any that may afterwards 

 form will drain out. This being done, the case is to be 

 treated as one of pricked foot. 



On the other hand, when the quittor originates in the 

 coronet, it will be requisite to observe the degree of lameness 

 present, and to make a thorough examination with a flexible 

 probe. These two states are different, because in one the 

 suppuration has simply risen or sought the nearest point of 

 egress ; in the other, egress being at hand, the disease has 

 caused sinuses in an unnatural direction. 



The ORDINARY Mode of Cure is to introduce caustic into 

 the sinuses ; and while the cartilage is free from caries, this 

 is, perhaps, the most prompt mode of proceeding. The 

 common practice is to mix half a drachm of powdered 

 corrosive sublimate, with thrice the bulk of flour, and to 

 make these into a paste with water. This is taken little by 



