392 



ter of the foot aud drawing the ends down to an edge. The tapering 

 of the branches should begin at the toe, and the shoe should be of 

 the usual width, with both the upper and lower surfaces flat. This 

 tip is to be fastened on with six or eight small nails, all set well for- 

 ward, two being in the toe. With a common foot rasp begin at the 

 heels, close to the coronet, and cut away the horn of the wall until only 

 a thin layer covers the soft tissues beneath. Cut forward until the 

 new surface meets the same 2^ or 3 inches from the heel. The same 

 sloping shape is to be observed in cutting downward toward the bot- 

 tom of the foot, at which point the wall is to retain its normal thickness. 

 The foot is now blistered all around the coronet with Spanish fly oint- 

 ment, and when this is well set the patient is to be turned to pasture 

 in a damp field or meadow. The blister should be repeated in three or 

 four weeks, aud, as a rule, the patient can be returned to work in two 

 or three mouths' time. The object of the tip is to throw the weight on 

 the frog and heels, which are readily si)read after tlie horn has been cut 

 away on the sides of the wall. The internal structures of the foot at 

 the heels, being relieved of excessive pressure, regain their normal con- 

 dition if the disease is not of too long standing. The blister not only 

 tends to relieve any inflammation which may be present, but it also 

 stimulates a rapid growth of healthy horn, which, in most cases, ulti- 

 mately forms a wide aud normal heel. In old chronic cases, with a 

 shrunken frog and increased concavity of the sole, accompanied by ex- 

 cessive wasting of all the internal tissues of the foot, of course satis- 

 factory results can not be expected and are rarely secured. Still much 

 relief, if not an entire cure, may be affected by these measures. 



When thrush is present as a complication its cure must be sought by 

 such measures as are directed in a consideration of this disease under 

 its proper heading. If sidebones, ringbones, navicular disease, con- 

 tracted tendons, or other diseases have been the cause of contracted 

 heels, of course treatment of the result will be useless until the cause 

 is removed. 



SAND- (BRACKS. 



A sand-crack is a solution of continuity or fissure in the horn of the 

 wall of the foot. These fissures are quite narrow, and as a general rule 

 they follow the direction of the horny fibers. They may happen on any 

 part of the wall, but ordinarily they are only seen directly in front, 

 when they are called toe-cracks ; and on the lateral parts of the wall, 

 when they are known as qtwrter-cracJcs. (Plate xxxiii.) 



Toe-cracks are most common in the hind feet, while quarter- cracks 

 nearly always affect the fore feet. The inside quarter is more liable to 

 the injury than the outside one, for the reason that this quarter is not 

 only the thinner, but during locomotion receives a greater part of the 

 weight of the body. A sand-crack may be sui»erficial, involving only 



