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ted to exert their force at the bottom of the foot, where the 

 wall is strongest, by reason of the wired in or contracted con- 

 dition of that portion of the quarters. Atrophy of those tissues, 

 producing 'atrophy of the hoof structures, I think would be a 

 very unsatisfactory explanation of the phenomenal conditions 

 under consideration. There is crowding, pressure, enlargement, 

 bursting out, and rupture of the horny investment, but no wasting 

 or shrinking implied at this stage of the malady. I find inva- 

 riably associated with quarter-crack this contracted lower mar- 

 gin ; and as I cannot, for very obvious reasons, consider the 

 crack the cause of the contraction, I assign the cause of the 

 crack to contraction. The cure of contraction is also the cure 

 of the crack, and the cure of the crack is the cure of contrac- 

 tion. The cause and the effect are both removable at the same 

 time. I will make it appear at the proper place that a crack 

 of this nature can be closed up effectually, without a nail, clasp 

 or rivet other than what goes through the shoe, or ligature of 

 any kind. The lameness consequent upon these lesions of the 

 hoof disappear usually within a fortnight. The cracks can never 

 be burst open again while the shoe is properly attached, and 

 remains stronger than the hoof. I have treated hundreds of 

 such cases, and a single failure is unknown to me. Not a mark 

 is made with a knife or firing-iron upon the external surface of 

 the hoof, and it would require an acute observer to detect the 

 existence of a crack, or that anything whatever had been done 

 to the feet. No mean advantage, this, over every other plan 

 of treatment. Even the bar-shoe is dispensed with. 



