QUITTOR. 395 



of the horse when, in cases of confirmed quittor, there is reasonable hope of 

 permanent cure. A knowledge of the anatomy of the foot is necessary to enable 

 him to decide what parts, indispensable to the action of the animal, may have 

 been irreparably injured or destroyed, or to save these parts from the destructive 

 effect of torturing caustics. When any portion of the bone can be felt by the 

 probe the chances of success are diminished, and the owner and the operator 

 should pause. When the joints are exposed, the ease is hopeless, although, in a 

 great many instances, the bones and the joints are exposed by the remedy and 

 not by the disease. One hint may not be necessary to the practitioner, but it 

 may guide the determination and hopes of the owner : if, when a probe is in- 

 troduced into the fistulous orifice on the coronet, the direction of the sinuses or 

 pipes is backward, there is much probability that a perfect cure may be effected ; 

 but if the direction of the sinuses is forward, the cure is at best doubtful. In 

 the first instance, there is neither bone nor joint to be injured ; in the other, 

 the more important parts of the foot are in danger, and the principal action and 

 concussion are found. 



Neglected bruises of the sole sometimes lay the foundation for quittor. 

 When the foot is flat, it is very liable to be bruised if the horse is ridden fast 

 over a rough and stony road ; or, a small stone, insinuating itself between 

 the shoe .and the sole, or confined by the curvature of the shoe, will 

 frequently lame the horse. The heat and tenderness of the part, the occasional 

 redness of the horn, and the absence of puncture, will clearly mark the bruise. 

 The sole must then be thinned, and particularly over the bruised part, and, in 

 neglected cases, it must be pared even to the quick, in order to ascertain whether 

 the inflammation has run on to suppuration. Bleeding at the toe will be clearly 

 indicated ; and poultices, and such other means as have either been described under 

 " Inflammation of the Feet," or will be pointed out under the next head. The 

 principal causes of bruises of the foot are leaving the sole too much exposed by 

 means of a narrow- webbed shoe, or the smith paring out the sole too closely, or 

 the pressure of the shoe on the sole, or the introduction of gravel or stones 

 between the shoe and the sole. 



The author subjoins the mode of cure in this disease, as it has been practised 

 by two veterinary surgeons. They are both excellent, and, so far as can well be 

 the case, satisfactory. 



Mr. Percivall says : — " The ordinary mode of cure consists in the introduction 

 of caustic into the sinus ; and so long as the cartilage preserves its integrity — by 

 which I mean, is free from caries — this is perhaps the most prompt and effectual 

 mode of proceeding. The farrier's practice is to mix about half a drachm of 

 corrosive sublimate in powder with twice or thrice the quantity of flour, and 

 make them into a paste with water. This he takes up by little at a time with 

 the point of his probe, and works it about in the sinus until the paste appears 

 rising in the orifice above. After this is done he commonly has the horse walked 

 about for an hour or two, or even sent to slow work again, which produces a 

 still more effectual solution of the caustic, at the same time that it tends greatly 

 to its uniform and thorough diffusion into every recess and winding of the sinus. 

 The consequence of this sharp caustic dressing is a general slough from the 

 sinus. Every part of its interior surface is destroyed, and the dead particles 

 become agglutinated, and cast off along with the discharges in the form of a dark 

 firm curdled mass, which the farrier calls the core ; and so it commonly proves, 

 for granulations follow close behind it, and fill up the sinus."* 



The other mode of treatment is that of Mr. Newport, a surgeon of long stand- 

 ing : — " After the shoe has been removed, thin the sole until it will yield to 

 the pressure of the thumb ; then cut the under parts of the wall in an oblique 



* PorciviiU's Hippopathology, vol. i. p. 248. 



