TOE SANDCllACK. 477 



even as far as the point of the toe. Digging th© tip of the toe 

 into the ground, or stamping it hard down upon the pavement, 

 and especially when this stress upon the fore part of the wall is, 

 standing or going, promoted by high caulkings to the shoe, must 

 certainl}^, one would think, be the exciting cause of toe sand- 

 crack ; an opinion still farther favoured by the observation which 

 has been made of shaft horses in drays being more subject to the 

 accident than trace horses. Still, however, for all this, it behoves 

 me to say, that with the best judges of such matters, the point 

 is one not yet freed from doubt and difference of thinking. 

 Short and upright pasterns, with clubby prominent hoofs, in- 

 dicate a predisposition to toe sandcrack, the disease being in no 

 instances seen in flat, shelvy, spreading hoofs. It is said, sand- 

 crack may originate in tread. Undoubtedly, any lesion of the 

 coronary body sufficient to injure or destroy its secretory ap- 

 paratus may occasion imperfect or morbid formation of horn, or 

 loss of horn altogether ; but I do not believe this to be a very 

 common cause of sandcrack. 



The Consequences of Sandcrack in the Hind Hoof 

 are, as I have before hinted at, apt to be of a much more serious 

 nature than any usually arising from a quarter sandcrack. 

 Whether the crack extend to the extremity of the wall or not, 

 being uniforndy of the penetrant description, lameness to greater 

 or less degree is the invariable result. And when the fissure 

 does reach down to the toe, the divided wall opens and exposes 

 the laminae, probably the whole way from the coronet down- 

 ward, the consequence of which is inflammation and suppura- 

 tion of those parts, and sometimes even mortification and 

 sloughing of them ; and not of them alone, but of the bone to 

 which they are attached as well, which not infrequently runs 

 into a state of caries, ending in defalcation of substance, to be 

 filled up by the effusion of callus, and usually terminating in 

 exostosis, coated with some tissue very imperfectly representing 

 the original laminated structure. 



Mr. Braby, the intelligent veterinary surgeon to Messrs. 

 Barclay and Perkins' establishment, to whom I am indebted 

 for much of the information I possess on this part of my sub- 



