160 QUARTER-CRACK. 



concussion. The quarter, if drawn in a little, is then liable 

 to split, and always on the inner side, because the shell is 

 there thinnest and weakest. Simply open the heel on the 

 side split between the bar and frog, cutting well down, but not 

 to bring blood. Put on the form of shoe described, and spread 

 the quarter enough to remove all possible pressure upon it. 

 Crease with a hot iron across at the edge of the hair, and 

 let the horse go to his work, observing to keep a good strong 

 pressure upon the quarter by repeated spreading of the shoe, 

 until the quarter is natural. To show the value and impor- 

 tance of this means of curing contraction and quarter-crack, 

 I would refer to the fact that no work on shoeing or the care 

 of the foot published gives any practical means of cure for 

 contraction and quarter- crack. I read a report recently 

 of a series of lectures delivered by Prof. Cressy of Amherst 

 College, before the medical students and farmers in Burling- 

 ton, Vt. The high standing of this gentleman, as a teacher 

 of veterinary practice and a lecturer, makes him authority 01 

 the highest order. He described the nature and cause 01 

 contraction and quarter in well-chosen language. It is 

 caused, he says, by want of moisture and pressure upon the 

 frog. For the cure of contraction, he advised stuffing the 

 feet with oil, meal, and pine-tar, moistening them with cold 

 water ; and, to prevent evaporation from the foot, to cover 

 the hoof with an ointment made of equal parts of sweet oil, 

 pine-tar, and mutton-tallow, and a little beeswax. For quar- 

 ter-crack he gave no treatment. If the object is to remove 

 pressure from the vascular structure of the foot, simple 

 moisture and preventing evaporation is but the merest pal- 

 liative treatment. It is not treatment by which the horse that 

 is crippled can, in any practical sense, be cured ; for, once 

 the heels are turned in, they will, like the nail of the toe, keep 

 inclined more and more to grow in unless mechanically con- 

 trolled. Certainly this is no practical treatment for quarter- 

 crack. The hoof can be preserved easily enough, as it grows 

 down, from splitting, by keeping the animal in a stall ; but 

 the hoof grows down as it was before. The cause remains 

 of the heel being drawn in, making the hoof too small ; so 

 that, as soon as the horse is put to work, and the hoof be- 

 comes dry, it is liable to burst at any time. 



No amount of stuffing or moisture will remove pressure 



